Defense: He wasn’t involved

All prosecutors have on a Long Beach man on trial for murder are phone records showing him talking with lifelong friends and the word of two lying killers, defense attorneys said during the trial’s opening statements Monday.

In a short opening statement to jurors, attorney Winston McKesson told jurors that his client, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 43, did not help two men kill Newport Beach couple Tom and Jackie Hawks in 2004 aboard their boat, Well Deserved.

Prosecutors claim Kennedy, a suspected gang member, helped Skylar Deleon and Alonso Machain strap the Hawkses to an anchor and throw them overboard out at sea for the promise of millions of dollars. Machain is expected to testify in the case and has yet to face his own murder charges in the case. Attorneys said he is testifying in exchange for prosecutors taking the death penalty off the table if convicted. They are seeking the ultimate punishment with Kennedy, the third man to go on trial for the Hawkses killings.

Prosecutors claim Deleon found Kennedy through a middleman, Myron Gardner, who also faces murder charges for his alleged role in the plot. Gardner and Kennedy have been friends for 20 years, McKesson said.

“You’re going to hear that both Myron Gardner and Alonso Machain are testifying for prosecutors for one reason; not out of any sense of remorse or duty, out of any sense of sympathy for the Hawks family. It’s the one reason, the same reason they’re involved in this case: They’re looking out for themselves,” McKesson said.

In an elaborate plot that involved more than half a dozen people, Deleon convinced the Hawkses he wanted to purchase their boat for nearly $500,000 with cash he obtained as a child actor. He then forced them to sign over title documents giving him access to their bank accounts so he could empty them and flee to Mexico with his wife and child, and the money.

Key to the plot was manpower, and that’s where Kennedy, also known as “Crazy John,” comes in, prosecutor Matt Murphy said.

Tom Hawks was no slouch — he was a retired probation officer who maintained a workout regimen that kept him strong and healthy. When Deleon and Machain first planned to subdue Tom and Jackie, they quickly realized they would need help.

Prosecutors say that’s when Deleon called Myron Gardner from Long Beach. Gardner originally tapped another man to be the muscle, but when he failed to show up at the rendezvous point on the arranged day, prosecutors told the jury Kennedy filled his place.

The three met the Hawkses at Newport Harbor and set sail, the couple believing Kennedy was Deleon’s accountant, Murphy said.

Out at sea, secluded from the world, Kennedy, Deleon and Machain overpowered the couple with stun guns and duct tape, Murphy said.

All of that is true, defense attorneys said, except for the fact that Kennedy wasn’t there, McKesson said.

There are no phone records showing Kennedy talking with either Deleon or Machain, jurors heard. On top of that, there is no evidence — no weapon, no records, no witnesses outside Machain and Deleon — that Kennedy was even there. If Kennedy did kill for money, wouldn’t he have at least called Deleon in the months afterward to get paid, McKesson asked the jury. There’s no record any such call was placed, he said.

McKesson also defended his client’s character. Prosecutors call him a hard-core Long Beach gang member previously convicted of attempted murder. McKesson said he was an ex-gang member who moved away from the street life and found religion. The pastor of a Long Beach church even tapped him to take over after retirement, McKesson said.

On top of it all, Machain is Mexican and Deleon is white. Kennedy, through his upbringing, did not associate with non-black people and would certainly not take orders from any, his lawyer said.

“You’re going to say, ‘Why would this man, who’s been a leader all his life, who’s almost 40 years old, ... take orders and instructions from these two little, wimpy guys?’” McKesson said.

Witness testimony begins today. Prosecutors are expected to call family members of the Hawkses to fill in the couple’s background leading up to the slayings.

JOSEPH SERNA may be reached at (714) 966-4619 or at [email protected].