Kathleen Harris, who was working as a notary public two years ago, testified Thursday that Skylar Deleon, one of the accused killers, threatened to kill her and her family. The testimony came in the trial of Deleon's wife, Jennifer Henderson-Deleon, as prosecutors sought to rebut her defense that she was ignorant of the plot to kill Tom and Jackie Hawks. Skylar Deleon, John Fitzpatrick Kennedy and Alonso Machain are also charged in connection with the murder, but their trials will be held separately sometime next year.
Harris testified that Deleon paid her $2,000 to notarize a power-of-attorney form after Harris' friend, Adam Rohrig, asked her to do so. Tom and Jackie Hawks were forced to sign the document before they were thrown overboard, tied to an anchor, Machain testified on Wednesday.
Harris testified she met Skylar Deleon and Jennifer Henderson-Deleon in a hotel room where Henderson-Deleon told her they were staying because faulty electrical wiring sparked a fire in a fish tank at their home.
When she was leaving, Henderson-Deleon told her, "When this all goes through, we will compensate you more," Harris testified.
Henderson-Deleon's defense attorney maintained that she had no knowledge of her husband's plan and could have been talking about insurance papers and the boat sale.
When Harris prodded Rohrig about why the Deleons needed the papers backdated and stamped, she testified that he told her, "You don't want to mess with these people."
The warning further frightened Harris when police told her days after about the Hawkses' disappearance. But when Rohrig asked her to notarize another document for the Deleons, she did so because she feared for her life, she said. The second document was a bill of sale for the boat, which lacked any signatures, something she knew would catch the attention of any bank.
