Pennsylvania – from www.timesleader.com – A state appellate court upheld the conviction and life sentence for a Virginia man who was found guilty by a Luzerne County jury of killing a rival porn producer in Dallas Township in 2007.

Harlow Cuadra, 29, sought a new trial claiming mistakes were made by the judge, Peter Paul Olszewski Jr., before and during the two-week trial in March 2009.

Cuadra said Olszewski erred in disqualifying attorney Demetrius Fannick from representing him and permitting prosecutors to play two audio recordings during the trial.

The secret recordings of his conversations with two witnesses cooperating with investigators violated Pennsylvania’s wiretap law despite the recordings taking place in California, Cuadra said. The jury heard the recordings and was provided with written transcripts over objections by Cuadra’s trial lawyers, Paul Walker and Joseph D’Andrea.

Cuadra was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison for the slaying of Bryan Kocis, 44, inside Kocis’ Dallas Township home on Jan. 24, 2007. Investigators said Cuadra and his partner, Joseph Kerekes, 26, killed Kocis, their rival in the gay pornography industry, before setting the house on fire.

Kerekes pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in December 2008 and was sentenced to life in prison.

Investigators said in arrest records that Cuadra and Kerekes did “reconnaissance” of Kocis’ home before Kocis was killed.

Cuadra challenged the audio recordings played to the jury because the transcripts of the recordings made a reference to “We” when it was actually “He,” which referred to Kerekes as the person who did the surveillance of Kocis’ home.

Olszewski in March 2008 disqualified Fannick from representing Cuadra after prosecutors argued there was a conflict of interest after Fannick had met Kerekes at the county prison. Cuadra said his rights were violated when he was not afforded the opportunity to choose his own lawyer by hiring Fannick, noting prosecutors were biased because Fannick had defended Hugo Selenski, who was acquitted of killing two men after a jury trial in March 2006.

In a five-page ruling issued on Oct. 14, the Superior Court upheld Cuadra’s conviction and sentencing, stating Olszewski’s rulings before and during Cuadra’s trial were “well detailed and well-reasoned.”

“We can find no error in its factual findings and corollary legal conclusions,” the appellate court ruled on each of the issues Cuadra challenged.

Cuadra is jailed at the State Correctional Institution at Coal Township in Northumberland County, and Kerekes is jailed at SCI-Huntingdon Township in Huntingdon County.

Olszewski lost his bid at retention in the November 2009 election.