WILKES-BARRE, Pa – It looked promising for a man listed as juror 94, a retired railroad employee. He pledged to keep an open mind during Harlow Cuadra’s trial, and understood the penalty phase in a capital murder proceeding.
Lawyers were receptive to his answers until he complained no one on Pennsylvania’s death row is executed.
His opinion got him excused by Judge Peter Paul Olszewski Jr. from serving on the jury that will decide Cuadra’s fate.
Assistant district attorneys Michael Melnick, Shannon Crake and Allyson Kacmarski are seeking the death penalty for Cuadra, 27, charged in the alleged premeditated killing of rival gay pornography movie producer Bryan Kocis [pictured] in January 2007.
Kocis, 44, was found with a slashed throat, and nearly 30 stab wounds, inside his burned out home on Midland Drive, Dallas Township.
A co-defendant in the case, Joseph Kerekes, 35, pleaded guilty in December to second degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison.
Before he was killed, Kocis told an associate he was meeting a new model on Jan. 24, 2007. Investigators alleged Cuadra set up several e-mail accounts and sent Kocis several e-mails identifying himself as Danny Moilin in a model application for Kocis’ company, Cobra Video.
It was under that disguise, investigators alleged, that Kocis invited Cuadra into his home the night he was killed.
Prosecutors claim the motive to the killing was Cuadra and Kerekes wanted to work with Sean Lockhart, who was a contract model for Cobra Video.
Prosecutors and Cuadra’s attorneys, Joseph D’Andrea and Paul Walker, questioned 94 out of a pool of 125 people specially summoned for the trial during the last four days.
Eleven people – seven males and four females – have been chosen.
The attorneys need to select 12 jurors, plus four alternates, before opening arguments begin.
Olszewski will resume jury selection Monday morning.
