Early Thursday, the Virginia Beach Office of the Commonwealth’s Attorney received extradition warrants signed by Governors Tim Kaine of Virginia and Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania seeking the extradition of Harlow Cuadra and Joseph Kerekes to face murder charges in Luzerne County, Pa.
Cuadra and Kerekes stand accused of stabbing Kocis to death and then setting fire to his home in order to destroy evidence of their crime.
According to Paul Powers, an attorney in Virginia Beach, the arrival of the governor’s warrant cancelled a scheduled bail hearing for the pair, and eliminated the possibility of their posting bond in Virginia.
“Once we receive those warrants, bond becomes irrelevant,” Powers said, according to CitizensVoice.com.
Cuadra and Kerekes had been scheduled for a bond hearing Thursday; Powers said it was a coincidence that the extradition warrants arrived on the same day the hearing was scheduled.
A motions hearing in the case has now been scheduled for June 27. According to Powers, attorneys for the accused have until that day to file petitions challenging the governor’s warrants. If defense attorneys do not oppose the warrants, then officers from the Pennsylvania State Police will transport the two men to Luzerne County to start criminal homicide proceedings there.
Investigators in the case believe that Caudra and Kerekes, who ran a gay male escort service in Virginia as well as at least three gay porn websites, killed Kocis in order to facilitate signing one of Kocis’ star performers, Sean Lockhart
In an affidavit of probable cause filed in the case, investigators assert a connection between Caudra, Kerekes and the murder through numerous email messages, credit card receipts, car rental records and incriminating comments allegedly made by the pair while under surveillance at a nude beach in San Diego.
