Jurors last week found that Kennedy was a willing participant in the murder-for-hire plot that sent the Hawkses into the icy deep alive, tied to the anchor from the boat they had worked for years to afford. Defense attorneys are fighting for a life-without-parole sentence.
Senior Deputy Dist. Atty. Matt Murphy presented his entire argument Monday, introducing jurors to the slain couple through emotional testimony by friends and family, and a DVD video of their last years aboard their 55-foot yacht, Well Deserved.
Tuesday defense attorney Chuck Lindner countered with his own witnesses, all of whom portrayed Kennedy not as an active gang member who could unflinchingly kill, but as a man wise from his past and impressing his lessons onto younger people. None of them knew Kennedy before 2001. He was arrested in March 2005.
“When I saw him working, it’s a thing about going to church and being a part of something greater than yourself … it inspires you,” said Tracy Ramirez, a Los Angeles web designer who met Kennedy in church in 2003. “I believe he would be a great service to the men [in prison.] There’s so many people who’ve lost their way. I think John has spoken of this at church. Losing your way and finding it, we can all be redeemed.”
Murphy conducted little cross-examination of the defense’s seven character witnesses, but did glean a common theme among them: They all believe the jury got it wrong and Kennedy is innocent. They wouldn’t be there if they thought he was guilty, most said.
“Most people go to gangs for family, for support, and we had that [with Kennedy],” said Javana Glover, Kennedy’s niece.
