Jury Votes Death Penalty for Yacht Murderer
Jurors Were Unswayed by Accounts of Skylar Deleon's Childhood Abuse
Pohlson did not argue the nature of the murders.
"You will never see murders more diabolical and heartless than these," he told jurors.
He said Deleon did not decide to become a killer, but was turned into one. Pohlson pointed the finger at Deleon's father for turning him "into a terrible man, into a murderer" and said Deleon's childhood was "as bad as it gets."
Despite the jury's recommendation, Deleon will not know his punishment for sure until it is handed down by Judge F. Fasel in January.
Three other men have been charged with the Hawkses' murders and have pleaded not guilty.
'Yanked' to Their Deaths
Last month, alleged accomplice Alonso Machain, a cooperating witness for the prosecution, described in gut-wrenching detail what happened aboard the Hawkses' yacht during their last hours.
Machain said that he, Deleon and a third man overpowered the couple, handcuffed the two to the anchor and sent them hurtling to their deaths.
"They were basically yanked -- yanked into the ocean,'' he told Orange County jurors, as tears welled up in the eyes of the Hawkses' friends and family in the courtroom gallery.
Deleon and the other men then turned the boat around and began an hourlong trip back to the shore, according to testimony. One cracked open a beer and grabbed a fishing pole and "started fishing,'' Machain said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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