24 - MIGHTY MORPHIN' MURDERER

Former child actor SKYLAR DELEONA, who starred in hit TV series MIGHTY MORPHIN' POWER RANGERS, has been accused of brutally murdering a Californian couple by tying them to an anchor and throwing them overboard a yacht.

Deleon, 26, and wife JENNIFER, 24, have been ordered to stand trial for the murders of THOMAS HAWKS and his wife JACKIE last November (04) in an alleged plot to steal their 16.7 metre (55 foot) luxury yacht.

The Orange County Superior Court heard, yesterday (17AUG05), the pair posed as interested buyers and demanded a test run off Newport Beach where they attacked the elderly pair with a stun gun before handcuffing and blindfolding them.

They were then allegedly tied to the boat's 30 kilogram (66 pound) anchor and ruthlessly thrown overboard where they drowned.

Police were alerted to the murder by fellow accomplice ALONSO MACHAIN who claims Delona delayed the planned killings by a week after discovering that Hawks, a retired probation officer from Arizona, was a larger man than first expected.

MATT MURPHY, the Deputy District Attorney, "It is haunting to think these nice, loving people were trying to hold their breaths as they sank to the bottom of the ocean.

"This is as cold-blooded as it gets."

All the defendants have pleaded not guilty.