Two gay porn actors will go to trial on charges they murdered a rival porn executive in a dispute over a coveted actor after a judge's ruling Thursday.
District Magisterial Judge James E. Tupper ruled that, based on the testimony of 14 witnesses during a two-day hearing, there was enough evidence against Harlow Cuadra and Joseph Kerekes for both men to go to trial. They are charged with murdering Cobra Video executive and gay porn kingpin Bryan Kocis.
"It sucks," Harlow Cuadra said to reporters when asked how he felt as he left the courtroom. "I didn't do it. I didn't kill that man."
Police say Cuadra and Kerekes killed Kocis because of a dispute involving actor Sean Lockhart, known in the adult film industry as Brent Corrigan.
Police say Cuadra, 25, and Kerekes, 33, went to Kocis' Dallas, Pa., home Jan. 24 and slashed his throat, nearly decapitating him. After he was dead, they stabbed him 28 times and burned his body and home to hide the crime, according to police documents.
Kocis' body was found that night by firefighters responding to the fire. Police believe Cuadra and Kerekes gained access to the porn executive's home by tricking him into thinking Cuadra was a new model who was interested in making a movie for Cobra Video.
Both men continued to assert their innocence as they were led separately out of the courtroom flanked by state police officers.
"I was never in that house, and I intend to get an expert to prove that," Kerekes said.
During the hearing, prosecutors showed nearly 40 gruesome photos of Kocis' body and the wounds he sustained.
They also showed a surveillance video of both men in a gun store, where Cuadra purchased a gun and a knife, as well as semi-nude photos prosecutors say Cuadra e-mailed to Kocis. A state police captain testified the knife purchased could be capable of killing Kocis and inflicting the wounds he sustained.
Grant Roy, an adult film producer who knew both Cuadra and Kerekes, recounted a taped conversation he had with both men at a nude beach called Black's Beach in San Diego, Calif. on April 28.
Roy said that Cuadra and Kerekes spoke about doing reconnaissance work at Kocis' home sometime before he was killed and that both men mentioned being at Kocis' home the night of his murder.
Court documents also showed that Cuadra ordered a background check on Kocis from his computer with a credit card.
Roy also testified that Cuadra spoke cryptically about his emotions the night he was at Kocis' home.
"[Cuadra] said it went really quick, and he said that [Kocis] never saw it coming," Roy said. "He said it seemed kind of sick, but he felt like he had got even with [Kocis] in a way. It made him feel good."
But neither Cuadra nor Kerekes specifically admitted killing Kocis, although Roy said he felt the killing was implied.
Although both men admitted to destroying most of the property, Roy testified, they claimed to have taken some videos from Kocis' home and watched them at the house they shared in Virginia Beach, Va.
Roy said Cuadra debated whether to keep a film of Sean Lockhart, but Cuadra thought it was "too hot and would connect him to the murder," Roy testified.
Roy said that Cuadra told him at one point while in the home, he got nervous that Kocis might have realized he was not the model he was pretending to be.
"At that time, the doorbell rang and it got crazy," Roy quoted Cuadra.
"What did Cuadra say happened after the doorbell rang?" Luzerne County Assistant District Attorneys Michael Melnick asked.
"He said that's when his dude arrived, and it was over," Roy testified. He did not specify who the "dude" was.
A Pennsylvania State Police trooper testified that an e-mail address tied to Cuadra had been created solely for contact with Kocis. A model, who identified himself as Danny Moilin, asked to meet with Kocis to work on a film. The semi-nude photos included in the e-mails were of Cuadra. As the photos were being showed, Cuadra turned to his mother and sister and lowered his head.
The last communication between the model and Kocis occurred at 7:15 p.m. on Jan. 24, the night of the murder. A meeting had been set up for 15 minutes later at 7:30, less than an hour before Kocis was found dead, Trooper Brian Murphy testified.
An e-mail account registered to Kerekes was accessed shortly before the murder, but Murphy said he didn't currently have records to show whether the account just remained open or if e-mails were sent.
"So he could have logged in and walked away to do something else, like walk in a house or commit murder?" Melnick asked.
"Or he could have been sitting there the whole time?" Kerekes' lawyer, Joe Necito, asked during cross-examination.
As he left the courtroom after the hearing, Kerekes said he would eventually show proof that he was at a motel room sending e-mails when the murder occurred.
State police Cpl. Leo Hannon, who headed up the investigation, testified that the men did have a hotel room in the area, but cellphone records place both men near Kocis' home, not at the motel room at the time of the murder.
Hannon said Cuadra also rented a car for the drive from Virginia to Pennsylvania. The mileage on the car, he said, mirrored the trip from their home in Virginia to Kocis' home. The route matched records from a disposable cellphone that "Danny Moilin" used to call Kocis.
Judge Tupper tossed burglary and conspiracy to commit burglary charges against both men, accepting arguments from defense attorneys that they men could not have committed burglary if one or both of them was let into the home willingly by Kocis.
Kerekes and Cuadra will now face trial on charges of homicide, robbery, arson, abuse of a corpse and conspiracy to commit murder.
Melnick said the district attorney would decide if the state would seek the death penalty in this case, a decision he said would be reached in the coming weeks.
from Court TV
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