As Henderson-Deleon cried, her mother, Lana Henderson, was visibly shaken. Henderson declined to comment as she left the courtroom.
"Obviously they're devastated and they're upset," defense attorney Michael Molfetta told reporters at the Orange County Courthouse.
The Hawks family, Newport Beach detectives and prosecutor Matt Murphy were pleased with the verdict.
"Justice has been served today," Newport Beach Police Sgt. Evan Sailor said. "The system worked today."
Tom and Jackie Hawks were killed aboard their boat, Well Deserved. Machain testified that he, Deleon and Kennedy overpowered the couple, duct-taped their eyes and mouths, tied them to an anchor and threw them overboard after forcing them to sign a power-of-attorney document over to Deleon.
Prosecutors argued that Henderson-Deleon put the couple at ease about a week before they were killed by bringing her 9-month-old daughter aboard the boat. Machain testified that before Jackie Hawks was killed, while pleading for her life, she asked Deleon how he could kill them after bringing his then-pregnant wife and baby aboard the boat.
Testimony by Henderson-Deleon's father and another friend showed she was not the demure, Godly woman the defense portrayed her as, prosecutors said.
Molfetta never thought a jury would acquit Henderson-Deleon because of the volume of evidence Deputy Dist. Atty. Matt Murphy presented against her, he said, adding he had been hoping for a mistrial. That's one reason why Henderson-Deleon did not take the stand.
"There were a lot of things [Murphy] did not present that I knew he was holding back in anticipation of her testifying," Molfetta said.
He said he could not elaborate because of the pending trials of Deleon, Machain and Kennedy.
