Sentencing delayed for area couple’s killer

After his attorney asked for more time Friday, a Long Beach man is scheduled to be sentenced in March for killing a Newport Beach couple in 2004 by throwing them overboard tied alive to an anchor and slashing another man’s throat in the Mexican desert a year earlier.

Skylar Deleon, 29, is scheduled to be sentenced March 20 at Orange County’s Central Justice Center in Santa Ana for killing three people for money. A jury recommended Deleon be put to death in November.

Deleon was originally scheduled to be sentenced Friday, but defense attorney Gary Pohlson sought more time to “work on some things.” Pohlson declined to elaborate.

Deleon and his then-wife, Jennifer Henderson, were heavily in debt in 2003. Deleon befriended a man from Whittier, Jon Jarvi, while on a furlough program in Seal Beach.

In December 2003, Deleon took Jarvi into the Mexican desert, killed him and took the $50,000 he had recently received as a loan.

Nearly a year later, back in debt, Deleon convinced Tom and Jackie Hawks that he was interested in buying their boat, the Well Deserved. In a November 2004 outing in which the couple thought they would close the deal, Deleon killed them. Two other men are accused of helping him and face trial later this year.

JOSEPH SERNA may be reached at (714) 966-4619 or at joseph.serna@latimes.com.