Yacht Couple Mystery Solved?

In a chilling account given to police, one of the four implicated in the killing of a retired Arizona couple while stealing their yacht said the couple agreed to sign over rights to the boat before they were tied to an anchor and thrown alive into the sea.

Now, three of them are facing trial in Southern California, accused of murdering the retired couple.

An Orange County Superior Court judge has ordered 26-year-old Skylar Deleon, his wife, Jennifer; and 39-year-old John F. Kennedy all of Long Beach, to appear in two weeks for arraignment on charges of murder with special circumstances.

Thomas and Jackie Hawks of Prescott, Ariz., disappeared Nov. 15, 2004, after leaving on a test run with a prospective buyer for their 55-foot yacht.

Alonso Machain, who met Skylar DeLeon while working in a jail, told detectives earlier this year that he agreed to participate in the killings after DeLeon promised him several million dollars. Machain faces a separate trial.

A Newport Beach police sergeant testified Tuesday that, according to Machain, the yacht hijackers cuffed the couple's hands behind their backs and duct taped their mouths and eyes before the couple agreed to sign power of attorney documents for their 55-foot yacht, the Los Angeles Times reports.

The sergeant also testified that Machain said Deleon and Kennedy tied the Hawkses to an anchor and tossed them overboard while they were still alive.

Their bodies have never been found.

But they didn't do it on their first try, Tuesday's testimony suggests.

DeLeon and Machain went on a ride on the boat — named "Well Deserved" — on Nov. 6, pretending to be prospective buyers. They meant to kill the couple and steal the yacht, but aborted the plan, the Los Angeles Times reports, because Tom Hawks, a retired probation officer, was bigger than they expected.

Soon, they enlisted a third person in their plot.

Deleon, who lives in Long Beach and has a previous conviction for burglary, was a child actor who appeared in the "Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers" television show, according to Michael Molfetta, an attorney for his wife, Jennifer, who attended the arraignment.

Tom Hawks, 57, and Jackie, 47, had been living on the "Well Deserved," off Southern California but decided to sell it and buy a smaller vessel and a home in Mexico, family members said.

All defendants have pleaded not guilty.