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Loading ...Life in prison in gay porn murder case
03.16.2009 6:40pm EDT
(Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania) Harlow Cuadra was sentenced to life without parole Monday for the killing of Cobra video owner Bryan Kocis.
The 27-year-old could have received the death sentence, but the jury of eight men and four women could not reach a unanimous decision on whether the prosecution had met the burden of proof for the death penalty.Cuadra was found guilty last Thursday of killing Kocis in 2007. Cuadra’s former lover and business partner, 35-year-old Joseph Kerekes, already is serving life after pleading guilty last December to second degree murder after making a deal with prosecutors.
Cuadra and Kerekes saw Kocis as a business competitor; they wanted a male model under contract with Kocis.
Assistant District Attorney Michael Melnick called on the jury to impose the death penalty. In his summation, Melnick told the court that Kerekes is a murderer but that Cuadra played a “predominant role in this homicide.”
Among the witnesses Melnick called to testify in the penalty phase Friday were Kocis’ parents who described their son as ” loving, caring [and] generous.”
“You have to know Bryan, if only you knew Bryan the way we did, he was very private,” Joyce Kocis testified. “He was the type of person who did things for people.”
Michael Kocis said he has not had a full night’s sleep since his son died.
“I’m going to try and get through this,” he told the court, wiping tears from his face.
