WILKES-BARRE, Pa – Matthew Wade Brannon thought it was a scam.
Five days after first meeting Harlow Cuadra and Joseph Kerekes for an escort session in Virginia Beach, Va., Brannon said the pair asked him for $1,000.
Cuadra, 27, and Kerekes, 35, claimed they needed the money for a Webmaster course at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va., Brannon said.
Brannon, 38, of North Carolina, said they offered him a free lifetime subscription to their gay pornographic Web site, boybatter.com, and a free boybatter DVD. He accepted the offer and charged the money to his credit card.
Prosecutors said Cuadra and Kerekes solicited Brannon within an hour after they allegedly killed Bryan Kocis, 44, inside Kocis’ Dallas Township home on Midland Drive on Jan. 24, 2007.
The solicitation was through several e-mails, with the initial e-mail requesting money sent to Brannon at 8:36 p.m. on Jan. 24.
Prosecutors said Kocis was killed sometime between 7:40 p.m., when witnesses on Midland Drive said they heard a car door shut outside Kocis’ residence, and 8:32 p.m., when a neighbor saw Kocis’ home ablaze.
Brannon was one of 14 people to testify on Thursday, the eighth day of Cuadra’s capital murder trial before a Luzerne County jury that is being presided over by Judge Peter Paul Olszewski Jr.
Investigators allege Cuadra and Kerekes killed Kocis, whom they considered their main rival in the adult film production industry, and wanted to film movies with adult film actor Sean Lockhart, a contract actor for Kocis’ company, Cobra Video.
Kerekes pleaded guilty in December to second-degree murder and is serving life in prison. Cuadra’s lawyers, Joseph D’Andrea and Paul Walker, may call Kerekes to testify next week on Cuadra’s behalf.
Cuadra could face the death penalty if he is convicted of first-degree homicide.
Brannon told investigators that when he was with Cuadra on Jan. 19 and again on Jan. 20, 2007, Cuadra talked about filming an adult movie with Lockhart.
Prosecutors showed the jury the e-mails on Thursday that Brannon received from the two men the day Kocis was killed.
Virginia Beach gym owner, Lance Treadway, told the jury that Cuadra and Kerekes visited the gym every day, but they didn’t show up on Jan. 24 and Jan. 25, 2007.
Gym member Joseph John Zalusky said he worked out the same time with Cuadra and Kerekes, and described Cuadra as “a very strong gentleman” for his size.
Assistant district attorneys Michael Melnick, Shannon Crake and Allyson Kacmarski are attempting to convince the jury that Cuadra had the strength to kill Kocis, despite his smaller appearance in court.
Zalusky said Cuadra benched-pressed 225 pounds, and Treadway recalled seeing Cuadra squatting several 45-pound plates on a 45-pound bar.
Prosecutors suspect Kerekes and Cuadra panicked when Virginia Beach police searched their home in the early morning of Feb. 10. Later that day, Kerekes sold jewelry and watches at a Virginia Beach pawn shop, telling employees two different stories as to the reason why he was selling the items.
Irving Walker III, of Superior Pawn Shop, told the jury that Kerekes wore clothes that someone “would pick up at a flea market.” Walker said Kerekes, a regular customer at the pawn shop, normally wore expensive clothing.
Handwriting samples from Cuadra and Kerekes, obtained by county Detective Lt. Gary Capitano by court order, were analyzed by Antoine Frazer, a document examiner for the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Frazer told the jury the pair’s handwriting samples matched letters they sent to friends, including a receipt at a Plains Township motel with Kerekes’ handwriting, and a one-day registration form at the Odyssey Fitness Center, Wilkes-Barre, where Cuadra visited on Jan. 24, 2007.
TRIAL DEVELOPMENTS
Assistant district attorneys Michael Melnick, Shannon Crake and Allyson Kacmarski have called 66 witnesses to testify against Harlow Cuadra since the trial began on Feb. 24.
Luzerne County Detective Lt. Daniel Yursha and state police Trooper Brian Murphy, a computer forensics investigator, are also expected to testify today.