Defense: Jury may have been swayed

Defense attorneys for a Long Beach man accused of helping to kill a Newport Beach couple out at sea in 2004 raised their second concern in two days Thursday that the jury could be influenced by things outside the courtroom.

Before prosecutors could begin their final day of testimony in the trial of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 45, defense attorneys Winston McKesson and Charles Lindner expressed concern to Orange County Superior Court Judge Frank F. Fasel that television news coverage of the high-profile case has reached the jury.

They had nothing direct to support their concern but explained to the judge that they, and some of their colleagues, had seen clips Wednesday night on news channels of an interview with Skylar Deleon, the convicted mastermind of the plot to kill Newport Beach retirees Tom and Jackie Hawks.

Kennedy is accused of helping Deleon and another man carry out the plot to kill the couple, steal their boat and empty their bank accounts.

Prosecutors claim Kennedy was the “muscle” who helped subdue the couple aboard their 55-foot yacht, Well Deserved, and tied them to an anchor and threw them overboard alive.

Their bodies were never found. Before killing them, Deleon forced the Hawkses to sign over legal rights to their bank accounts and boat.

The attorneys said interviews with Deleon could prejudice the jury if they saw them or any of the other TV features on the Hawkses case slated for broadcast soon.

“I don’t know what you want me to do,” Fasel told the pair, before deciding on a poll asking which jurors had seen the Deleon interview or were following the case in the news. No jurors said they had seen it or were following the case outside the courtroom.

Thursday’s actions caused some eye-rolling in the audience, filled with Hawks family members and people linked to the case.

In a dramatic scene Wednesday, Lindner called a Long Beach police gang detective out of the audience for questioning because he believed a phone call the detective had placed in the courthouse’s hallway, near jurors, could have prejudiced them.

With the jury out of the courtroom, the officer testified that he was trying to call his partner to tell him he wouldn’t be to work on time and that the call didn’t connect.

Such instances, among others, have extended the trial longer than expected. Senior Deputy District Atty.

Matt Murphy rested his case Thursday afternoon after a Newport Beach detective reiterated for jurors that phone records put Kennedy’s cell phone in Newport Beach around the time the Hawkses set sail for the last time.

Records show cell-phone towers in Newport Beach were carrying Kennedy’s calls about the time police believe the Hawkses set sail with their three eventual killers on Nov. 15, 2004.

Records show Kennedy’s phone was off for several hours when prosecutors claim he was out at sea and out of cell-phone range, and then on again when police say the boat returned to Newport Harbor, without the Hawkses.

A cell-phone expert testified earlier in the trial that a cell-phone tower can carry a phone call from up to 15 miles away, leaving open the possibility that Kennedy was nowhere near Newport Beach when authorities claim he was.

Murphy’s case against Kennedy depends on the cell-phone records and testimony of two men who are also charged with murder in the case and put Kennedy on the boat with Deleon and the Hawkses.

Defense attorneys told jurors during opening statements Kennedy is a reformed gang member and was training to be a pastor in a Long Beach church. They will begin presenting their case Monday morning in the Central Justice Center in Santa Ana.

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