'Yacht Killer' got taxpayer-funded sex change while on death row after Harris' 'behind the scenes' policy work

A California serial killer who tied an Arizona couple to an anchor and drowned them in the Pacific Ocean to raise money for a sex-change operation finally got one while sitting on death row – with taxpayers footing the bill thanks to left-wing policies pushed under former state Attorney General Kamala Harris, now the Democratic 2024 presidential nominee, according to a new report.

Skylar DeLeon, 45, is a former child actor, born John Jacobson Jr. in 1979. DeLeon was sentenced to death in 2009 for the 2004 murders of yacht owners Thomas and Jackie Hawks and was separately convicted of the 2003 murder of an associate named Jon Jarvi from Anaheim.

In a letter to the Washington Free Beacon published Tuesday, DeLeon wrote about receiving "gender affirming surgery and breast augmentation" on April 5, 2023. The killer had been taking female hormones since first arriving on death row in San Quentin on April 16, 2009.

The condemned inmate told Fox News Digital that "the media is saying things that are factually inaccurate." DeLeon declined to go into specifics but claimed to have obtained a legal name change to Skylar Sophia DeLeon 20 years ago. The killer, however, used that name while outwardly identifying as male for years.

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"I am sorry, but I can't talk with you," DeLeon wrote. "One thing though, quit calling me John Jacobson – that is not my name. My legal name is Skylar Sophia DeLeon. It has been changed since I was much younger, way before my arrest."

DeLeon had planned to use the victims' money to fund a sex-change operation as early as 2004, Orange Coast Magazine reported back in 2015.

According to court documents, DeLeon and then-wife Jennifer Henderson pretended to be interested in buying the 55-foot yacht, named "Well Deserved," from the Hawks couple.

DeLeon and two male accomplices attacked them with stun guns during a test drive. They forced the couple to sign over power of attorney. They handcuffed the victims, duct taped their eyes and mouths, and tied them to an anchor before shoving them overboard 55 miles offshore. Their bodies were never found.

Harris initially opposed taxpayer-funded transition surgery while representing the state as attorney general in court in a battle with a trans inmate who was seeking a sex change. State and federal courts would later establish precedents requiring procedures in other cases, and California corrections officials later set their own guidelines for prisoners in the Golden State.

In an interview with Fox News' Bret Baier on "Special Report" Wednesday, the vice president was asked if she "still supported" spending taxpayer money on prisoners and detained illegal immigrants seeking trans treatments.

"I will follow the law," she said. "And it's a law that Donald Trump actually followed."

However, during her failed 2020 campaign, she took credit for securing access to sex-change drugs and operations for California inmates in an interview with the National Center for Transgender Equality.

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"When I was attorney general, I learned that the California Department of Corrections, which was a client of mine – I didn't get to choose my clients … they were standing in the way of surgery for prisoners," she told the organization in a 2019 interview.

"And there was a specific case. When I learned about the case, I worked behind-the-scenes to not only make sure that that transgender woman got the services she was deserving – it was not only about that case – I made sure that they changed the policy in the state of California so that every transgender inmate in the prison system would have access to the medical care that they desire and need."

The Golden State's lenient treatment of trans inmates has prompted an uproar more than once. One inmate who claimed to be a trans female, Tremaine Deon Carroll, was transferred out of a women's prison after being indicted on two rape charges.

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The James "Hannah" Tubbs case in Los Angeles also prompted a deputy district attorney to come forward with whistleblower allegations after the convicted child molester and killer was released from a prior sentence in an adult male prison to juvenile custody in LA, where he began identifying as a female and joked about gaining access to underage girls.

He is currently being held in a men's prison after pleading guilty to a manslaughter charge for beating his friend to death with a rock over $100.

Amie Ichikawa, the executive director and a founding member of Woman II Woman, a Christian rehabilitation group for women re-entering society after prison, told Fox News Digital that she had feared for DeLeon's ex-wife back in 2021, when trans inmate transfers to female prisons picked up.

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"She was among the women who I feared for the most – the ones with ex-husbands who decided to transition," she said, arguing that women's facilities are inherently less secure.

"There is no equivalent security level to men’s death row in any women's prison," she said. "[Central California Women's Facility] is basically the same as a men’s level 2 as far as staffing, safety and funding is concerned."

Fox News' Alec Schemmel and The Associated Press contributed to this report.