Yacht Murderer Wanted Sexual Reassignment Surgery

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Skylar Deleon had wanted a sex change for a long time, and finally decided to take matters into his own hands.

In his first network television interview since being convicted for murdering a couple aboard their yacht, Skylar Deleon told ABC News that he wanted to be a woman so badly, he tried to cut off his genitalia in prison.

"I basically took a sheet and tied it around my lower extremity … I tied it around and I went to cut it off," he told ABC News.

Watch the story tonight on "20/20" at 10 p.m. ET.

Deleon's dreams of big money and a more luxurious lifestyle came to an end after he murdered Tom and Jackie Hawks aboard the couple's yacht in 2004. In October 2008, the jury voted for the death penalty for Deleon, 29, a former child actor .

But some believe the motive behind the murders didn't have to do with a desire for material wealth, or Deleon's abusive childhood. Instead, the cold-blooded killings may have been driven by Deleon's gender identity.

"This caper, this entire murder, this desire to get some wealth, to get some money, was to pay for that sex change," said Michael Molfetta, a defense attorney who represented Deleon's wife, Jennifer.

via : http://abcnews.go.com/