A man convicted of murdering an American couple by tying them to an anchor and throwing them overboard their yacht off Southern California was sentenced to death by lethal injection on Friday.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Frank F. Fasel imposed the sentence recommended by the jury that last year convicted Skylar Deleon, 29, of killing Tom and Jackie Hawks of Arizona. DeLeon was also convicted for the 2003 killing of Jon Jarvi, an Anaheim man he met in prison and who he later persuaded to give him more than $50,000, purportedly to take part in an investment opportunity

Deleon, of Long Beach, California, feigned interest in buying the couple’s 40ft motor yacht, Well Deserved, and threw them overboard during a test cruise in November 2004. The bodies were never found.

Henderson was convicted in 2006 of murder and murder for financial gain and was sentenced to two terms of life in prison without parole. John Fitzgerald Kennedy, one of two men accused of helping Deleon in the plot, was also convicted in the murders earlier this year and a jury has recommended the death penalty when he is sentenced in May.

Murder charges against Myron Gardner, the other man, were dismissed when he pleaded guilty last month to accessory after the fact.