A transgender convicted murderer named John Jacobson Jr. managed to endure taxpayer-funded gender reassignment surgery. Skylar Deleon, as he now calls himself, was convicted in 2008 of the brutal murder of a married couple in a attempt to steal money for his such operation.

The murders

On November 15, 2004 Thomas and Jackie Hawks boarded their yacht alongside Jacobson, who had expressed interest in purchasing the boat. According to reports from The Washington Free Beacon, as they set sail from a dock off the coast of California, the killer attacked the couple and threatened them with a gun. He tied them to the boat’s anchor and forced them to sign documents for their bank accounts and ownership of the boat. After receiving the documents, Jacobson and his accomplices threw the couple overboard, remaining on board fishing and drinking beer before returning to port.

The Hawks earned the kill Jacobson is nicknamed the “Yacht Killer.” The man was convicted of these murders in 2008. However, it was discovered that he had committed one previous murder, that of his former cellmate. For this he could obtain $50,000.

In a letter to the Free Beacon dated January 17, Jacobson wrote:

He is awaiting transfer to a women’s institution

Jacobson told the Free Beacon that he is waiting to be transferred to a female prison: ‘I should be transferred quite quickly, but the prison is forcing us to go to the committee to determine whether or not we go to which prison (sic.), even though I have had both operations. I am currently being housed in the hospital for my safety. My counselor and (doctors) refuse to release me anywhere other than the Central California Women’s Center.”

This dangerous move to allow male convicts to serve their sentences in female prisons was endorsed by Vice President Kamala Harris. In 2020, during her presidential bid, Harris was seen celebrating her work to change California’s policy that allows transgender inmates to change prisons based on their assigned gender. Harris said she worked as California’s attorney general for the state Department of Corrections on the way to prisoner operations:

“I was working behind the scenes to not only make sure that that transgender woman got the services that she deserved, so it wasn’t just about that case,” she said. “I made sure 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 they wanted and needed,” Harris said.