Convicted ‘Yacht Killer’ Gets Taxpayer-Funded Trans Surgery Thanks To Kamala Harris

A California serial killer who brutally murdered an Arizona couple by tying them to a boat anchor and throwing them overboard has received taxpayer-funded gender transition surgery while serving on death row, thanks to policies championed by Vice President Kamala Harris during her tenure as the state’s Attorney General.

Skylar Deleon, formerly known as John Jacobson Jr., underwent “gender-affirming surgery and breast augmentation” in 2023, causing outrage among taxpayers and victims’ families who question the use of public funds for such procedures. Deleon, who is serving a life sentence for the 2004 murders of Thomas Hawks, 57, and his wife Jackie, 47, had been plotting to kill the couple in a scheme to steal their yacht. After binding them to the anchor, Deleon drowned them in the Pacific Ocean—a crime so heinous it sent shockwaves through both California and Arizona.

The case has resurfaced in the public eye after it was revealed that California taxpayers funded Deleon’s gender transition surgery while incarcerated. The taxpayer-funded procedure was made possible by policies set in motion during Kamala Harris’s time as Attorney General of California, when she advocated for gender-affirming healthcare for inmates. Harris, who is currently the Democratic 2024 presidential nominee, had previously touted these policies as part of her progressive criminal justice reforms.

In a letter to the Washington Free Beacon, Deleon confirmed receiving gender-affirming surgeries while in prison. “First I did receive Gender Affirming Surgery and Breast Augmentation on Apr. 5th, 2023. I began transitioning when I first got to San Quentin. I started hormones in 2009 shortly after being evaluated,” Deleon wrote. “Next, yes I am going to committee to transfer to a female facility. Right now though I am stuck in the prison hospital until I do my committee, which should be in the next few weeks.”

In Deleon’s letter, the convicted killer also discussed the challenges of transitioning while in prison and the bureaucratic steps involved in securing a transfer to a women’s prison. “As for SB132 I should transfer fairly quickly but the prison makes us go to committee to determine whether or not which prison we go to even though I have had both surgeries,” Deleon explained. “Right now I am being housed in the hospital for my safety. My counselor and Dr.s refuse to release me anywhere except Central California Women’s Facility.”

During her time as Attorney General, Harris had defended the state’s policies on gender-affirming care for inmates, arguing that such treatments were necessary to uphold constitutional standards of inmate care. However, for the families of Thomas and Jackie Hawks, Deleon’s gender transition is seen as a disturbing footnote to the tragic deaths of their loved ones. The Hawks, described by friends as a kind and adventurous couple, were targeted by Deleon in a premeditated plot to seize their valuable yacht.

Deleon’s final remarks in the letter show little reflection on the crimes that landed him on death row, leaving the Hawks family and many Californians demanding justice that feels more aligned with the victims than with their killer’s post-conviction lifestyle changes.

Jackie Hawks’s mother, Gayle O’Neill, was in disbelief. “I don’t know what right [Harris] had to decide that he gets surgeries now. I mean, why should they get all these benefits?” she said. “They killed people, right? Took people’s life. He killed my daughter and son-in-law, and now he gets what he wants,” the mother told the Free Beacon.

Deleon had long aspired to change his gender. In a 2009 interview with ABC News, his first on network television since being convicted of murdering a couple on their yacht, Deleon revealed that his desire to transition was so intense that he had attempted to sever his genitalia while in prison.

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“I basically took a sheet and tied it around my lower extremity … I tied it around and I went to cut it off,” he said. “I’m not attracted to guys, but I wanted the surgery, and I knew I 100 percent wanted the surgery. But I only like females.”

He remembered thinking, “I’ll do it myself.” He believed that changing his gender might lead to a transfer to a women’s prison, explaining, “I get along a lot better with females than I do with the guys.” As Deleon attempted to sever his penis, he reported that deputies intervened immediately. They entered his cell swiftly and transported him to the hospital. He noted, “[The deputies] got me too quick,” and admitted, “And it’s a lot harder to cut than you think.”

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