PUBLIC SAFETY Five charged with murder in...

PUBLIC SAFETY

Five charged with murder in missing-couple case

Five people, including a husband and wife, were formally charged

Friday with the murder of a Newport Beach couple who disappeared

after they showed their yacht to prospective buyers.

Long Beach residents Skylar DeLeon, 25, and Jennifer

Henderson-DeLeon, 23, and three other men face murder charges with

special circumstances making them eligible for the death penalty. Tom

Hawks, 57, and Jackie Hawks, 47, went missing in November and police

believe they were overpowered, handcuffed and thrown overboard alive.

Their bodies have not been found but they are presumed dead.

* A female brown pelican is recovering following surgery Thursday

to repair a throat pouch that may have been intentionally slit.

The endangered bird was found Sunday in Huntington Beach with its

pouch almost completely cut away from its beak. Another pelican with

a similar wound was found in Newport Beach but died of its injuries.

* Cosa Mesa police are investigating the death of a man in a Mesa

Verde apartment.

Steve Mark Muller, 33, was found in his apartment by a friend

Tuesday, but likely died five to seven days earlier, police said. An

autopsy showed no signs of trauma, but police are listing the death

as suspicious because his apartment appeared to have been ransacked.

* The Anti-Defamation League’s Orange County-Long Beach region

announced that anti-Semitic incidents rose by nearly 25% within its

borders from 2003 to 2004.

Five harassment incidents in Costa Mesa and three in Newport Beach

were reported, making up one-fifth of all incidents listed by the

group.