A jury in Luzerne County found Harlow Cuadra guilty last week in the stabbing death of a Pennsylvania gay-porn producer and a judge sentenced him this week to two consecutive life terms.
Cuadra, 27, was accused of killing Cobra Video owner Bryan Kocis, 44. Cuadra’s former partner, Joseph Kerekes, 35, was also implicated in the murder but pleaded guilty in December and is serving a life sentence.
Firefighters found Kocis’ body Jan. 24, 2007, after Cuadra and Kerekes stabbed him nearly 30 times and set his Dallas Township house on fire.
After 12 days of testimony, the jury of eight men and four women deliberated for three-and-a-half hours March 12 before returning their verdict that Cuadra was guilty of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit criminal homicide, two counts of arson, robbery, theft, tampering with evidence, abuse of corpse and four other conspiracy charges.
Because the jury found him guilty of the arson and robbery charges, both of which are felonies, Cuadra faced the death penalty.
After deliberating for nearly six hours March 16, however, the jury could not reach a unanimous decision on whether Cuadra deserved the death penalty and, per Pennsylvania law, Judge Peter Paul Olszewski had to sentence Cuadra to a life sentence without parole. Cuadra received a second life sentence for conspiracy to commit criminal homicide.
“I certainly hope that a day does not go by for the rest of your life that you do not remember the tragic, the grief, the pain, the endless pain that you have caused that family,” Olszewski told Cuadra after the sentencing.
After finding Cuadra guilty, the jurors had to weigh the aggravating factors — the arson and robbery charges — against the mitigating circumstances the defense presented, such as Cuadra’s broken childhood home, sexual abuse he suffered, time in the Navy and his clean criminal record.
The jury returned to the courtroom March 16 after three-and-a-half hours of deliberating the sentencing and told the judge they had discounted the validity of one of the aggravating factors but couldn’t come to a unanimous decision on the other; Olszewski instructed the jury to continue their deliberations.
The jury foreman did not say which factor they’d eliminated.
Cuadra was the only witness who testified in his defense, and he pinned the murder on Kerekes. Cuadra said he’d met with Kocis to discuss acting in his films when Kerekes stormed the house and began stabbing Kocis.
Kerekes was set to take the stand in Cuadra’s defense but decided at the last minute not to testify.
Cuadra attorney Joseph D’Andrea said Kerekes was going to testify that Cuadra had nothing to do with the murder.
“We were taken aback,” D’Andrea told the Times Leader this week. “It again showed Joseph Kerekes trying to control Harlow Cuadra’s life. Joe Kerekes controlled Harlow for one last time.”
Throughout Cuadra’s testimony and the cross-examination of some of the 86 prosecution witnesses, the defense attempted to characterize Kerekes as domineering, arguing that he manipulated Cuadra into staying silent about the murder.
District Attorney Michael Melnick, the lead prosecutor in the case, noted that had Kerekes taken the stand, he would have “point-blank commit[ted] perjury,” as in his plea agreement he stated that Cuadra was the one responsible for the actual murder.
The prosecution presented numerous pieces of evidence to establish that Cuadra knew about the murder prior to the meeting, such as video surveillance of the pair purchasing a handgun and knife prior to leaving Virginia Beach, Va., where the two operated their own gay-porn and escort businesses, for Pennsylvania. The jury also listened to hours of recorded conversations between Cuadra and Kerekes and porn star Sean Lockhart and his partner Grant Roy, in which Cuadra made several incriminating statements about the murder.
Prosecutors argued that Cuadra and Kerekes killed Kocis because they wanted to work with Lockhart, a former Kocis employee who was locked in a legal battle with him over the rights to Lockhart’s stage name, Brent Corrigan.
Jen Colletta can be reached at [email protected].