Wilkes Barre, Pa- Homicide suspects Harlow Cuadra and Joseph Kerekes coached clients in their male escort business on what to tell investigators the night Bryan Kocis was killed in Dallas Township, Luzerne County prosecutors said in court records.

If their clients’ stories didn’t work out, prosecutors allege that the two Virginia men had a plan B.

Assistant District Attorney Michael Melnick outlined plan B during a pre-trial hearing last week before Court of Common Pleas Judge Peter Paul Olszewski Jr.

Lawyers for Cuadra, 26, and Kerekes, 34, both from Virginia Beach, Va., are seeking separate trials, claiming each client might implicate the other in the killing.

Investigators with the state police at Wyoming, Dallas Township police and Luzerne County detectives allege in arrest records that Cuadra and Kerekes killed Kocis, 44, their rival in the gay porn industry, and then set his Midland Drive home on fire the night of Jan. 24, 2007.

Investigators traced Kocis’ e-mails and electronic communications in the days before his death to Cuadra and Kerekes, arrest records indicate.

A vehicle rental receipt, a receipt at a Plains Township motel, and a receipt at a Wilkes-Barre fitness center place Cuadra and Kerekes in the Wyoming Valley the day before and the day of Kocis’ murder, court records say.

After they were arrested in May 2007, investigators recorded jailhouse telephone calls between Cuadra, Kerekes and their business agent, Renee Martin, where the three made up an alibi story, court records say.

Melnick said the three called their alibi story plan B, which consisted of Kerekes “slumbering at the Fox Ridge Inn (Plains Township), composing an e-mail to an escort client,” while Cuadra traveled to Kocis’ residence, “smelled smoke and fled from the unfolding tragedy.” Overcome by emotion, the two men sped back to Virginia Beach, Melnick claimed.

The three formed plan B as an alternative to other alibi stories that prosecutors claim were also made up. Court records say investigators intercepted several e-mails from Cuadra and Kerekes that sought help from clients in their male escort business, asking their clients to tell investigators that they were performing a service in Virginia Beach.

Prosecutors allege in court records that Cuadra solicited Mitch Halford, a long-standing escort client in Virginia, to tell investigators that Halford was with Cuadra the night Kocis was killed. Halford initially told investigators that he was with Cuadra on Jan. 24, 2007, but later recanted, saying he saw Cuadra once during a two-week span in late January, court records say.

Prosecutors allege in court records that Cuadra also wrote a letter on June 13, 2007, to Nep Maliki, another escort client, instructing Maliki on what to say to investigators. In the letter that Cuadra began, “For his eyes only,” Cuadra gave explicit instructions to Maliki to remember certain events. “I remember that you came over on January 24th (2007) around 7:30 a.m., maybe it was 8 a.m.,” Cuadra wrote. “You had on black jeans and a black heavy sweater. Black slip-on leather shoes.”

Kerekes maintained that he was with a client at the Fox Ridge Inn the night Kocis was killed, according to court records.

Prosecutors, who are seeking the death penalty for the two men, are seeking a joint trial, arguing that they have a “loyal alliance” to one another in connection to their alibi defenses.

Olszewski will rule at a later date to separate the trial or have a single trial.