Skylar Deleon, a former child actor who appeared on the popular kids’ TV series “Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers,” has been found guilty on three counts of first-degree murder, according to The Associated Press.
A jury in Orange County, Calif., convicted the now-29-year-old Deleon on Monday of murdering three people, including a couple who were tied to an anchor and thrown off their yacht off the California coast.
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The jury found him guilty of three counts of first-degree murder with special circumstances for financial gain and multiple victims.
Deleon’s victims were an Arizona couple – Tom Hawks, 57, and wife Jackie, 47 – who were last seen in November 2004, after setting sail aboard their 55-foot yacht with Deleon, who they believed to be a potential buyer for their boat, according to The Associated Press.
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Prosecutors argued Deleon, and two other men, took a test cruise with the couple posing as interested buyers, forced them to sign over ownership of the yacht and then tied their bodies to the boat’s anchor and threw their bodies overboard.
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The bodies of Tom and Jackie Hawks were never recovered.
In addition, Deleon was also found guilty of murdering Anaheim resident Jon Jarvi in 2003, who Deleon met while in a work furlough program while serving jail time for burglary, according to prosecutors.
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Deleon was charged with slitting Jarvi’s throat in Mexico after Jarvi gave him $50,000 in December 2003.
Gary Pohlson, an attorney for Deleon conceded to the jury his Deleon was guilty of all three murders from the beginning, however, argued his client should not be put to death.
“Skylar is guilty of all three murders, [but] at the end of this, I’m going to ask you to give him life without the possibility of parole as the appropriate sentence,” his attorney reportedly told the jury.
In asking the court for leniency, Pohlson reportedly cited Deleon’s “horrible, horrible life,” and noted that he was allegedly abused as child by his father, who eventually died of AIDS, according to Pohlson.
Tom Hawks’ son, Ryan, who was present at the court, called the verdict a “warm up” for the penalty phase, which will begin on Wednesday.
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