WILKES-BARRES, Pa. — A state Superior Court this month rejected Harlow Cuadra’s plea for relief and upheld his life sentence for the brutal slaying of Cobra Video producer Bryan Kocis in 2007.
Cuadra believed he deserved a new trial because his defense lawyers were ineffective and failed to present evidence that his partner was the actual killer.
A Luzerne County jury convicted Cuadra in 2009 with killing Kocis, inside Kocis’ Dallas Township, Pa., home he set ablaze in an attempt to cover up the murder.
Prosecutors alleged Cuadra and his partner, Joseph Kerekes, 41, planned to kill Kocis, their rival in the gay adult entertainment industry.
Cobra Video focused on the twink category in bareback and masturbatory scenes. Some of Cobra's titles include "Take It Like A Bitch Boy," "A Boy's Raw Urges" and "Bareback Twink Orgy."
Kocis' company catapulted in 2004 after he cast twink model Brent Corrigan in Cobra's "Every Poolboy's Dream." The video put Kocis' company on the gay porn map and Corrigan went on to become the most famous, and most lucrative, of his ool of actors.
But Kocis had legal problems that set back his company and personal life. He was sentenced in May 2002 to a year of probation for possessing a videotape that showed him having sex with a 15-year-old boy.
An autopsy conducted on the body of Kocis found that he was stabbed 28 times in his torso and body, and that his neck was slashed so severely, he was nearly decapitated.
Kerekes pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison.
Cuadra sought relief for his conviction, saying his trial lawyers, Joseph D’Andrea and Paul Walker, were ineffective and failed to object to several questions by Judge Peter Paul Olszewski Jr.
Cuadra also claimed that his lawyers failed to introduce evidence that Kerekes was responsible for Kocis’ murder. He testified in his own defense that he was inside Kocis’ house modeling for a position with Cobra Video when Kerekes rushed in and killed Kocis.
The court, however, upheld his sentencing, which also was appealed in 2010 without any success.
