WILKES-BARRE, Pa — Slumped into the wooden bench 15 feet behind her son, Harlow Cuadra’s mother cupped her face in her hands and wept as the woman explained why she couldn’t be the 12th juror in the capital homicide trial.
“I just can’t believe he did it,” the 99th potential juror said Monday morning before Judge Peter Paul Olzsewski Jr. “He looks like a kid.”
Luzerne County prosecutors will begin their case today, trying to prove that despite his small stature and appearance, 27-year-old Cuadra [pictured] killed Bryan Charles Kocis at his Dallas Township home in 2007, stabbing Kocis 28 times in the torso before setting fire to his Midland Drive home.
Opening statements will begin at 8:30 a.m. in the trial expected to last about three weeks.
It took five days to reach a jury panel of eight women and four men, as well as four alternate jurors, three men and one woman. Prosecution and defense attorneys interviewed 122 potential jurors individually.
Assistant District Attorney Michael Melnick will give the prosecution’s opening statement. He will outline the commonwealth’s case that Cuadra plotted to kill Kocis, 44, a rival pornography producer in order to lure an actor to his own pornography business. Cuadra operated the business with his partner Joseph Kerekes, 35 in Virginia Beach, Va. Kerekes, who pleaded guilty in December to second-degree homicide and is serving a life sentence, will not testify during the trial.
Melnick and his fellow prosecutors, with more than 100 witnesses, will present a meticulously detailed case they hope will point to Cuadra as Kocis’ killer. Witnesses are expected to testify on everything from forensic evidence at the crime scene, to the location of Cuadra the night Kocis was killed, as well as a supposed admission by Cuadra during a wire-tapped conversation at a nude beach in the La Jolla section of San Diego.
Cuadra, who could face the death penalty if found guilty of first-degree homicide, has remained quiet during the five days of jury selection, speaking rarely and almost exclusively to his attorneys. Occasionally Cuadra has turned from his chair at the defendant’s table to smile at his mother and sister who have watched most of the jury selection.
Kocis’ parents and sister, who have attended almost every hearing related to the case, sat in the front row of the courtroom as jury selection slowly moved through almost 25 hours of questioning.
Cuadra is represented by attorneys Joseph D’Andrea of Dunmore and Paul J. Walker of Scranton. Walker questioned potential jurors, focusing on any bias the jurors might have, particularly related to the death penalty or prejudice against homosexuals. D’Andrea will give the defense’s opening statement. None of the attorneys can comment to the media, because of an order by Olszewski, but the defense is expected to argue Cuadra couldn’t have committed the crime and point to Kerekes as the potential killer.
