(Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania) Jury selection is underway in the murder trial of Harlow Cuadra, accused of killing a gay porn producer he considered a competitor.

Cuadra’s co-defendant, Joseph Kerekes, pleaded guilty in December to the lesser charge of second degree murder for the 2006 slaying of Bryan Kocis, the owner of Cobra Video.  Kerekes was sentenced to life behind bars.

Both Kerkes and Cuadra originally were charged with first degree murder and prosecutors said they would seek the death penalty. Kerekes then made a plea deal with the District Attorney but he has refused to testify against Cuadra, his onetime lover.

Cuadra refused a plea agreement.

At a preliminary hearing in 2007, two medical examiners testified that Kocis died of massive blood loss after his head was nearly sliced off.

Luzerne County Coroner Dr. John Consalvo testified that Kocis suffered between 28 and 29 post mortem stab wounds before his home was torched in an attempt to cover up the killing last January.

When Kocis’ body was discovered by firefighters, more than 80 percent of the body was covered by third-degree burns.

Homicide detectives were able to find Kocis’ computer in the charred remains of the rural home and forensics scientists salvaged and reconstructed part of the hard drive.

On the hard drive they found a photograph of a man who was to have had an appointment with a man later identified as Kocis the night he was killed.

The picture came with the name “Drake” and police at the time said it could be a nickname or his last name.

Several days after the picture was released, the Times Leader newspaper found a Virginia beach escort who said he was the subject of photograph that that it was a head shot that he uses for publicity purposes, that he had never heard of a “Drake” and that he was working in Virginia the night Kocis was killed.

He declined at the time to give his last name but said his first name was Harlow.

It was then that police began collecting evidence on Cuadra. Another adult video producer, Grant Roy, was fitted with a recording device when he met with the pair and Lockhart at a California restaurant.

Court filings by the prosecution allege that both Cuadra and Kerekes made incriminating statements on the tape.