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Thread: Sean Kratz and Cosmo DiNardo Sentenced to LWOP in 2017 PA Multiple Murders

  1. #11
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    Cosmo DiNardo's cousin rejects plea deal, faces possible death penalty in four murders

    By Laurie Mason Schroeder and Pamela Lehman
    The Morning Call

    Sean Kratz, the cousin of Cosmo DiNardo and his alleged accomplice in the killing of four Bucks County men, rejected a plea deal Wednesday afternoon and prosecutors put the death penalty back on the table.

    Kratz, of Philadelphia, and DiNardo, of Bensalem, both 21, are each charged with multiple counts of criminal homicide in the July 7 killings of Dean Finnochiaro, 19, Thomas Meo, 21, and Mark Sturgis, 22. DiNardo is also charged with killing 19-year-old Jimi Taro Patrick, who was killed July 5, authorities say.

    Kratz rejected a plea bargain in which he’d serve 59 to 118 years in prison for third-degree murder and related charges. The case will now go to trial.

    Kratz’s attorneys, Craig Penglase and Niels Eriksen, declined to comment on their client’s decision. A hearing before Bucks County Judge Jeffrey Finley was delayed nearly an hour Wednesday as the lawyers and District Attorney Matt Weintraub spoke to Kratz in a courthouse holding cell.

    Lawyers on both sides of the case said earlier that they expected Kratz to accept the plea deal.

    Kratz did not testify during the brief hearing but answered “yes sir” as Penglase questioned him in open court about his rejection of the plea deal.

    Families of the four homicide victims were in the courtroom when the deal fell apart. They left without a word, walking behind a wall of deputy sheriffs who shielded them from news cameras.

    Weintraub said he and the families were “disappointed” by Kratz’s decision, but that he remained resolute to get justice for “our boys.”

    Kratz’s change of heart sets the stage for a trial that could pit cousin against cousin. DiNardo, who appeared in court Wednesday morning, pleaded guilty to four counts of first-degree murder and was sentenced to four consecutive life sentences in prison.

    Weintraub said at a news conference following Wednesday’s hearings that DiNardo has agreed to testify against Kratz. He also said prosecutors have Kratz’s confession on video, and it could be played at trial.

    “We’ll see if we can get the death penalty against him,” Weintraub said.

    While DiNardo has no chance of ever being paroled, Kratz woul have been eligible for parole in 59 years. Since Kratz’s rejected the plea deal, it’s now off the table, Weintraub said.

    “The only way that I could be moved to change my mind, is if the families urged us to do so,” Weintraub said. “Because as you know, from the minute we started this case back at the farm, we always had them uppermost in our minds and our thoughts. And if if could spare them some of the anguish that they are going through right this minute, we would potentially consider it.”

    Prosecutors say DiNardo lured the four young men to the DiNardo family’s Solebury Township farm with the promise of selling them marijuana before shooting them to death then burning and burying their bodies with a backhoe.

    After a five-day manhunt, investigators found three of the bodies in a mass grave, but were unable to locate Patrick’s remains. DiNardo told them where Patrick was buried after his lawyer negotiated a deal with prosecutors to take the death penalty off the table.

    A Bucks County detective testified at a prior hearing that Kratz admitted he heard DiNardo shoot Finocchiaro and saw his body, and that he watched DiNardo shoot Sturgis and Meo.

    Detective Martin McDonough said Kratz recounted seeing DiNardo run a backhoe over Meo to make sure he was dead. He claimed he vomited after seeing the bodies, according to McDonough’s testimony.

    After the shootings, Kratz told police he watched DiNardo move the bodies into a metal “pig cooker,” which DiNardo doused with gasoline and set on fire, according to court records. The cousins then went to a Philadelphia cheesesteak shop for dinner, the records say.

    The next afternoon, Kratz told police, the cousins returned to the farm and DiNardo buried the bodies with the backhoe, according to court records.

    Kratz allegedly confessed and showed police where he hid the two guns used in the homicides, police say.

    Kratz’s trial is unlikely to start until 2019, Weintraub said.

    http://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/m...516-story.html
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  2. #12
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    Killer dodges death penalty for gruesome quadruple murder on Bucks farm

    By Associated Press
    lehigh valley live

    One of two cousins has pleaded guilty to murder charges in the gruesome killings of four young men whose bodies were found buried on a suburban Philadelphia farm.

    Four Men SlainThis undated file photo provided by the Bucks County District Attorney's Office in Doylestown, Pa., shows Cosmo DiNardo, of Bensalem, Pa. (Bucks County District Attorney's Office via AP, File)

    Cosmo DiNardo faces life in prison under the terms of the deal reached Wednesday.

    His cousin, Sean Kratz, is expected to plead guilty to charges related to his involvement in the deaths of the men, ages 19-22, last July in Bucks County.

    The 21-year-old DiNardo pleaded guilty to charges including first-degree murder, conspiracy, robbery and abuse of a corpse.

    DiNardo's lawyer has said he'd plead guilty to avoid the death penalty.

    DiNardo was once committed, but lawyer Fortunato Perri said mental health professionals weren't sure they could present an insanity defense.

    A woman in the packed courtroom gallery wept as DiNardo entered his plea.

    Police said DiNardo, of Bensalem in Bucks County, lured the victims to his family's 90-acre farm in Solebury Township, outside New Hope, to sell them marijuana.

    He shot and killed 19-year-old Jimi Taro Patrick on July 5 with a .22-caliber rifle, then buried him in a hole dug with a backhoe.

    Two days later, DiNardo and his cousin Kratz, 20, of Northeast Philadelphia, shot and killed Dean Finocchiaro, 19; Tom Meo, 21; and Sturgis. authorities said; their bodies were lit on fire and buried in a 12-foot-deep common grave.

    After identifying DiNardo as a suspect in the disappearances of the men, authorities scouring the Solebury farm found the remains of the three buried together, authorities said. The prosecutor struck a deal with DiNardo not to seek the death penalty, contingent on his admission of guilt and full cooperation, including directing investigators to the location of Patrick's body, which was still missing at the time.

    http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/news...alty_fo_1.html
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    ‘In prison, you’ll meet savage,’ victim’s dad tells murderer

    Associated Press
    Honolulu Star-Advertiser

    DOYLESTOWN, Pa. >> A day of reckoning for two cousins accused of brutally killing four young men on a farm last summer was upended Wednesday when one of them reneged on a plea deal, a stunning turn that had prosecutors seeking the death penalty and considering his cousin as a star witness at his trial.

    Sean Kratz was accused of helping his cousin Cosmo DiNardo in a plot that involved luring the men to the family farm in suburban Philadelphia, ambushing and killing them, burning their bodies and crushing one with a backhoe before burying them. After the killings, prosecutors said, Kratz and DiNardo, both 21 years old, went for cheesesteaks.

    Kratz rejected an offer that would have put him in prison for at least 59 years for the crimes.

    “Unexpected outcome,” said Kratz’s lawyer, Craig Penglase.

    DiNardo, who earlier Wednesday pleaded guilty to four counts of murder in exchange for a life sentence, could be forced to testify at Kratz’s trial as part of his agreement to cooperate with prosecutors, District Attorney Matthew Weintraub said.

    Kratz gave a videotaped confession during plea negotiations detailing his involvement, Weintraub said, and prosecutors will seek to use the recording as evidence at his trial.

    Authorities saw DiNardo, a mentally disturbed son of wealthy parents, as the mastermind of the plot and charged him in all four deaths. Kratz was charged in three of the deaths but would have pleaded guilty to murder and conspiracy charges related to one victim, Dean Finocchiaro, who was 19.

    Weintraub said the deal Kratz rejected was a final offer and won’t be revisited unless the victims’ families ask for that. The families were stunned by Kratz’s decision.

    “The families came here today expecting that this would be behind them,” said Tom Kline, a lawyer for Finocchiaro’s family.

    No trial date has been set.

    DiNardo confessed during a grueling five-day search last July and agreed to help authorities find the body of his first victim, Loyola University Maryland student Jimi Taro Patrick, 19, in exchange for avoiding the death penalty. His plea gave solace to a grieving father, who turned to the stone-faced killer and told him: “Your only way out of prison is wearing a toe tag.”

    “That’s the least we all deserve,” said Mark Potash, the father of victim, Mark Sturgis, 22.

    Melissa Fratanduono, the mother of victim Tom Meo, 21, cursed at DiNardo, saying it has “taken everything” for her not to kill him.

    DiNardo has a history of mental illness, including an involuntary commitment and a schizophrenia diagnosis, but his lawyer said mental health professionals weren’t sure they could have presented an insanity defense.

    “Mental illness is real, mental illness is sad, and sometimes it can be tragic,” lawyer Fortunato Perri said.

    DiNardo, who dabbled in dealing marijuana and customizing sneakers, portrayed himself on social media as “a savage.” He showed himself holding guns and sent aggressive messages to women he found attractive.

    Potash called DiNardo a “perfect example of someone who started at the top and worked your way down to the gutter.”

    “You think you’re savage?” Potash said. “You’ve lived your whole life protected. In prison, you’ll meet savage. And I promise you, it won’t look like you.”

    The bodies of Sturgis, Meo and Finocchiaro were lit on fire and placed 12 feet (3 meters) deep in an oil tank converted into a cooker DiNardo called the “pig roaster.”

    Patrick’s grandparents, who had raised him since birth, asked DiNardo to pray for them and for his mother, who they said is mentally ill, so they might be able to forgive him.

    “My heart is broken, and I will never, ever be the same,” grandmother Sharon Patrick said.

    DiNardo was expressionless as he pleaded guilty to charges including first-degree murder, conspiracy, robbery and abuse of a corpse.

    “If there is anything I could do to take it back, I would,” he said. “I cannot come to terms with what occurred. I’m so sorry.”

    Judge Jeffrey Finley dismissed that as “false and insincere.” He said he listened to an audio recording of DiNardo’s confession and was struck by the lack of emotion and remorse in his voice.

    The families of the slain men are suing DiNardo’s parents, Antonio and Sandra DiNardo, who own the Solebury farm property and construction and concrete companies in Bensalem, where they live. They say DiNardo’s parents shouldn’t have allowed him access to a gun, which was barred by law due to his commitment. Investigators say he used at least two guns in the killings.

    Finocchiaro’s father, Anthony Finocchiaro, told DiNardo his family had “received a life sentence.”

    “I pray,” he said, “that Dean’s spirit haunts you the rest of your miserable life.”

    http://www.staradvertiser.com/2018/0...ells-murderer/
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    Lawyer admits to leaking Cosmo DiNardo, Sean Kratz confession tapes

    By Laura McCrystal
    Philly.com (TNS)

    A lawyer representing one of two defendants accused of killing four young men on a Bucks County farm last summer has been removed from the case and has admitted that he leaked confession tapes.

    Shortly after Cosmo DiNardo pleaded guilty to all four murders and Sean Kratz rejected a plea deal -- opting to go to trial and risk the death penalty -- NBC10 aired excerpts of audio recordings of confessions that the cousins made in separate interviews with investigators. Fox29 also aired excerpts of the tapes.

    "I am the individual who made those recordings public," Craig Penglase, who represented Kratz, 21, of Philadelphia, said in a letter to District Attorney Matthew Weintraub released Tuesday.

    The release came the day after Judge Jeffrey L. Finley granted Penglase's petition to have an alternate lawyer appointed, citing a conflict.

    Niels Eriksen Jr., who had represented Kratz alongside Penglase, said Tuesday that he would remain on the case, in which prosecutors have vowed to seek the death penalty and are likely to introduce the recorded statements as evidence.

    "I obviously had no idea of what my co-counsel was doing," Eriksen said Tuesday.

    Another lawyer, Keith Williams, has been appointed to represent Kratz as well, Eriksen said.

    He said the matter would be discussed at a hearing Wednesday.

    "The judge wants it on the record officially that the client's been advised of a situation, that he understands there's a conflict, that he agrees to the removal," he said.

    Penglase did not respond to a message Tuesday evening seeking comment.

    The Bucks County District Attorney's Office said in a statement that it released Penglase's letter because "some parties have continued to suspect and accuse the District Attorney's Office of releasing the recordings. ... We trust that this will eliminate any further baseless accusations about our role in this incident."

    Prosecutors have said the recordings are not public record while the case is ongoing. Finley issued an order last week sealing Kratz's interview with police.

    Kratz is charged with the shooting deaths and burials of Dean Finocchiaro, 19, of Middletown Township; Thomas Meo, 21, of Plumstead Township; and Mark Sturgis, 22, of Pennsburg. Investigators found their bodies buried in a 12 1/2 -foot grave on DiNardo's parents' sprawling Solebury Township farm days after they went missing in July.

    DiNardo pleaded guilty to killing those men as well as Jimi Patrick, 19, of Newtown Township, days earlier.

    In excerpts of the tapes released by NBC10 and Fox29, DiNardo described shooting and burying the men in a matter-of-fact tone -- with graphic and chilling details.

    "His head was split the hell open," DiNardo said in describing Finocchiaro's death.

    Kratz also admitted to shooting Finocchiaro, according to the NBC10 excerpts. He told investigators he had been afraid of DiNardo, and fired the gun when his cousin told him to.

    "I kinda was hesitant," he said in the recording. "I pulled the gun out. I aimed it in the air, closed my eyes and fired a shot."

    At one point during the confession, DiNardo cried, saying, "I threw my life away for nothing. All I've done is nothing. I ruined people's families."

    DiNardo, 21, of Bensalem, was sentenced to four consecutive life terms in state prison for the murders.

    Kratz's trial has not been scheduled. His refusal to accept a plea agreement last week surprised even his own lawyers. Instead of accepting a deal in which he would plead guilty to one of the three murders he is charged with in exchange for a 59- to 118-year prison sentence, his maximum penalty would be death.

    http://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/m...523-story.html
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    That's a pretty excellent way to get yourself disbarred.

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    New lawyer vows to find out why Cosmo DiNardo, Sean Kratz confession tapes were released

    By Erin McCarthy
    philly.com

    A newly appointed attorney for accused Cosmo DiNardo co-conspirator Sean Kratz vowed to look into the puzzling decision by Kratz's former lawyer to release tapes of his client admitting his role in the murders of four young men on a Bucks County farm last summer.

    Hours before the release of the tapes, Kratz rejected a plea deal that would have spared him the death penalty.

    Prosecutors have said they now plan to use the confession tapes against Kratz and may call DiNardo, his cousin, to testify against him.

    Kratz's legal team said it would argue that the recordings, which were leaked by former Kratz defense attorney Craig Penglase, should be inadmissible at trial, a date for which has not been set.

    The release of the tapes could also taint potential jurors, the attorneys said, but they added that it was too soon to say whether they might request an out-of-town jury.

    "The release and publication of the Cosmo DiNardo and Sean Kratz audio files are obviously something that should not have happened," Keith Williams said after a brief hearing in Bucks County Court on Wednesday.

    "This action has further traumatized the victim's families, impugned the reputation of the District Attorney's Office, and compromised the defense of Sean Kratz."

    Penglase admitted Tuesday to leaking the tapes, excerpts of which were aired last week, first on NBC10 and later on FOX29. The stations aired portions of the tapes just hours after DiNardo pleaded guilty to the four murders and Kratz, in a surprise move, backed out of his own chance at a deal.

    At Wednesday's hearing, Kratz, 21, of Philadelphia told the judge he talked with Penglase late last week and said he understood that a "conflict of interest" required the attorney to be removed from his case.

    The hearing lasted only a few minutes. Kratz, clad in an orange prison jumpsuit, answered the judge's questions politely and showed little emotion. Legs and arms crossed, Penglase sat quietly behind Kratz in the front row of the small courtroom.

    Over the last week, Penglase has not responded to calls and text messages seeking comment. Leaving court with fellow attorneys Wednesday, he only shook his head as a reporter asked him questions. The motive for his release of the incriminating tapes is unclear.

    In a letter to Bucks County District Attorney Matthew Weintraub released Tuesday, Penglase wrote: "It has come to my understanding that a question has been raised concerning who made public the audio interviews of Cosmo DiNardo and Sean Kratz. Please allow this letter to confirm that I am the individual who made those recordings public."

    The Bucks County District Attorney's Office said in a statement that it released Penglase's letter in response to suspicion that prosecutors were the source of the leak. It has said the tapes will not be made public while the case is ongoing.

    A day before the letter was released, Penglase asked the judge to take him off the case, citing an undisclosed conflict of interest. Cocounsel Niels Eriksen Jr., who will continue to represent Kratz, said he had been unaware that Penglase had released the tapes.

    By day's end Wednesday, a gag order had been issued, barring prosecutors and defense attorneys from talking to the media until the case's conclusion. The leak marked the latest twist in a gruesome case that has garnered national attention for nearly a year.

    It began when Jimi Patrick, 19, of Newtown Township; Dean Finocchiaro, 19, of Middletown Township; Thomas Meo, 21, of Plumstead Township; and Mark Sturgis, 22, of Pennsburg, went missing last July.

    After a multiday search, their bodies were found on the DiNardo family's 90-acre Solebury Township farm property. The remains of Finocchiaro, Meo, and Sturgis were discovered in a 12 1/2 -foot hole. When DiNardo, 21, of Bensalem, confessed to the killings, he agreed to direct investigators to Patrick's body, which was buried in a shallow grave elsewhere on the property. In exchange for his confession, prosecutors agreed to spare DiNardo the death penalty.

    DiNardo, who was known to local police and had made troubling comments on social media before the killings, told authorities he lured the men to the farm by telling them he had marijuana to sell. Once he got them there, he shot and killed them. He ran over Meo with a backhoe, and attempted to burn the bodies of Meo, Finocchiaro, and Sturgis in a converted oil tank that he referred to as the "pig roaster."

    In keeping with his end of the deal, DiNardo pleaded guilty last week and was sentenced to four consecutive life terms in state prison.

    During that hearing, relatives of the victims shared their pain and anger in emotional victim-impact statements. The deal Kratz turned down last week would have come with a 59- to 118-year prison sentence.

    http://www.mcall.com/news/nationworl...524-story.html
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    Cosmo DiNardo's transfer to medium-security prison draws ire of victims' families

    By Vinny Vella
    Philly.com

    Cosmo DiNardo, the admitted killer of four Bucks County men last summer, was transferred early Thursday to a medium-security prison in Northeastern Pennsylvania known for treating mentally ill inmates.

    DiNardo, 21, had been held at the state correctional institution in Camp Hill since his sentencing last month to four life terms in prison, according to Amy Worden, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections. On Thursday, he was moved to Retreat, a facility of about 1,000 prisoners in Luzerne County that specializes in treating inmates with “varying levels of severe mental illness,” Worden said.

    The Bensalem native pleaded guilty last month to the murders of Mark Sturgis, Thomas C. Meo, Dean A. Finocchiaro, and Jimi Patrick in a deal that spared him the death penalty.

    Fortunato Perri, DiNardo’s criminal defense attorney, did not respond to a request for comment about the transfer.

    Prison-reform advocates said Thursday that it’s standard procedure for inmates to be sent to Camp Hill after their trials conclude to determine where they’ll serve out the remainder of their sentences. It was unclear Thursday why Retreat was chosen for DiNardo.

    Mark Potash, Sturgis’ father, bristled at the news that DiNardo would be sent to Retreat, saying he was “beyond outraged” at the transfer.

    “We were notified this morning that [DiNardo] got transferred to a prison that has contact visits and dog training,” Potash said. “I don’t know how someone who comes off the street murdering four people gets put into medium security that quickly. Usually, you would think, it takes months to show good behavior to move to a place like that.”

    On three separate trips, DiNardo lured Sturgis and the other victims to his family’s property in Solebury Township with a pledge to sell them marijuana, but instead shot them and buried them in makeshift graves. Their disappearances, and the discovery of their bodies after a multi-day search, drew national attention.

    Sean Kratz, DiNardo’s cousin and co-defendant, rejected a plea deal last month in a last-minute move that surprised both prosecutors and his defense attorney. County prosecutors have said they plan to pursue the death penalty against Kratz, and may call DiNardo to testify against him.

    Meanwhile, Potash said he and the families of the other victims are frustrated with investigators in Bucks County, including District Attorney Matthew Weintraub, and have urged Gov. Wolf’s office to investigate whether DiNardo has received any preferential treatment.

    Larry King, a spokesman for the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office, said he was unable to comment Thursday because of a gag order in the case.

    http://www.philly.com/philly/news/pe...-20180607.html
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    A Year Later, Families of 4 Murdered Young Men Remain Raw

    A year after the deaths of four young men, the victims' families have stayed mostly out of the spotlight.

    By ERIN MCCARTHY
    The Philadelphia Inquirer

    DOYLESTOWN, Pa. (AP) — In the sweltering heat of a summer day, Sharon Patrick walked the cornfields of the DiNardo family's Solebury Township farm, praying the rosary. She told herself that her Jimi would be found, perhaps traumatized, but alive.

    Aimee Sturgis King stared up the long driveway toward the center of the property, where investigators searched for four missing young men: her son Mark Sturgis; Tom Meo; Jimi Patrick; and Dean Finocchiaro.

    "It was just one giant blur," she said in a recent interview, recalling the events of that July day last year. "We were there before they started searching every morning. I was there after they all left. Staring. ... I would just stare into the distance, knowing my child was somewhere back there."

    News helicopters hovered. Traffic backed up on Lower York Road as cars slowed, with drivers trying to get a closer look at the Bucks County tract that had become the epicenter of a national news story. At the foot of that driveway on the 90-acre property, four families gathered under tents, talking about their missing loved ones and wondering what might have happened.

    Later that week, after days of searching, they learned that it had been the unfathomable.

    Cosmo DiNardo, the property owners' mentally ill son, confessed to a grisly crime, telling authorities he lured the young men to the farm under the guise of selling them marijuana, then shot and killed them. He ran over one with a backhoe, attempted to burn three of them in a converted oil tanker, then buried them on the farm.

    DiNardo and his cousin Sean Kratz, both 21, were charged in the killings the next day, July 14.

    DiNardo pleaded guilty in May and was sentenced to four consecutive life terms. Through his lawyer, DiNardo declined comment for this story, as did his family.

    Kratz's trial is expected to begin next year. Through his attorneys, he declined comment, citing a gag order that bars defense attorneys and prosecutors from speaking publicly about the case.

    Until now, the victims' families have stayed mostly out of the spotlight. But as the one-year anniversary of the murders approached, they sat down to recount the terrible events, to shed light on the lives of the young men who were killed, and to talk about how they have learned to live without them.

    The news cycle has moved on in the year since the murders. National attention has focused elsewhere. But for these families, the pain — the ever-present heartache — is as real and as raw as it was the day the young men went missing.

    "Jimi, where are you?"

    Sharon and Rich Patrick, the grandparents who raised Jimi Patrick, sit quietly in his bedroom in Newtown. His name is spelled out on the wall in capital letters. There is a photo of him as a boy on the mound in his signature No. 9 baseball jersey, near the desk where he sat for hours toiling over homework. The room remains almost exactly as it was on July 5 of last year, when Patrick last left it.

    ___

    WHO THEY WERE

    Jimi T. Patrick, 19

    "He would've been a good father and a good husband and he would've made a difference in this world." - Sharon Patrick

    ___

    He was home from freshman year at Loyola University Maryland, which he was attending on a scholarship package that totaled more than $50,000 a year. A business major, he excelled there, his family said, just as he had at Holy Ghost Preparatory School in Bensalem.

    In the days before his death, he worked his part-time job at a restaurant and celebrated the Fourth of July with friends.

    The next evening, he told his grandmother he was going out to grab a bite to eat. He wouldn't be long, he told her.

    They hugged and exchanged "I love you's," a feeling they didn't always verbalize. As he left, Patrick hugged his grandfather goodbye in the garage.

    Then he walked outside and into DiNardo's silver pickup truck. The two drove 12 miles to the Solebury farm, where DiNardo shot Patrick with a .22-caliber rifle and buried his body in a freshly dug grave.

    ___

    "I DON'T THINK JIMI WOULD EVER THINK THAT ANYONE WOULD EVER HURT HIM."

    - SHARON PATRICK

    ___

    Around 2 a.m., Sharon Patrick woke up and peeked into her grandson's bedroom. It was empty, the bed still made.

    "Jimi, where are you?" she texted him.

    Later that day, the Patricks reported their grandson missing. Authorities pinged his cellphone and, for reasons unknown, the signal hit off cell towers in Springfield, Delaware County, Sharon Patrick said.

    Rich Patrick drove there, handed out fliers, talked with police, and scoured the area for any sign of his grandson, having no idea he was buried 40 miles away in Solebury.

    Sharon Patrick had heard DiNardo's name once before, she said. DiNardo was a year ahead of Patrick at Holy Ghost Prep. When Patrick, a budding entrepreneur, started selling sneakers online in high school, she asked how he learned how to do all that. He said, "This kid at school sells sneakers. Cosmo."

    It was such a unique name. She never forgot it. But she had no idea that he and Patrick would cross paths years later.

    "I just think maybe (Jimi) was in the wrong place at the wrong time," his grandmother said. "I don't think Jimi would ever think that anyone would ever hurt him."

    Someday, Sharon Patrick wants to be able to forgive DiNardo, she said. She is sympathetic to mental illness. Her daughter, Patrick's mother, is schizophrenic. A single mother, she was unable to raise her son on her own, Sharon Patrick said.

    ___

    SHARON & RICH PATRICK

    "I just want to give him a kiss"

    ___

    While Sharon Patrick believes DiNardo's parents should have watched over him more closely, she said of DiNardo: "I just want to believe he was in a state of mind where he had no idea what he was doing."

    Since losing their grandson, the Patricks have found purpose in helping others. They started the Jimi T. Patrick Memorial Fund to sponsor a scholarship to Loyola. They have written to the families of Jenna Burleigh, the Temple student who was murdered last summer, and Mark Dombroski, the St. Joseph's University student who was found dead in Bermuda this spring.

    Sharon Patrick took a part-time job as a recess aide at St. Andrew School, their parish grade school. Every day, she walks the path that her grandson once walked.

    Focusing in on a killer

    Each morning, Anthony Finocchiaro kisses a stone bearing the image of an angel next to the words "Always with you." He puts it in his pocket, goes to work as a heavy-equipment operator, and tries to distract himself.

    "I feel like I just exist at this point," he said. "I don't know how we do it. We just do it."

    ___

    WHO THEY WERE

    Dean Finocchiaro, 19

    "He just enjoyed himself and he didn't care what anyone thought. He did love the life that he lived." - Anthony Finocchiaro

    ___

    "It's really hard to explain. Like him and I talk, or I talk to the others, or I have some friends who have lost children," his wife, Bonnie, said. "But you just can't, you can't understand. It's empty. You're just not the same person."

    Bonnie Finocchiaro can't bring herself to buy milk. It reminds her of how her son Dean used to down Oreos and milk at the kitchen table.

    "I can't go in the garage. I can't go in my shed. I can't use my gas can because he'd always take my damn gas," Anthony Finocchiaro said, chuckling through tears. "My gas can was always empty, and it's so weird that it's full all the time."

    A photo of their son riding a dirt bike sits on the mantel in his family's living room in Langhorne. On the other side of a glass door, a sign on the porch reads: "Love the life you live. Live the life you love."

    Bonnie Finocchiaro laughs, thinking about how upset she was when her son came home with those words tattooed in big letters across his left arm. Today, she has the quote tattooed — smaller — in the same spot.

    In life, her son didn't fear anything, she said — not riding his quads or dirt bikes in the street, or jumping off cliffs in Jamaica, or taking on bigger opponents in ice hockey. He lived for the extremes. Sometimes, that quality would get him into trouble.

    "My son wasn't a goody-two-shoes kid," Anthony Finocchiaro said, "but he was a good person ... just an honest, loyal kid."

    In the months before Finocchiaro died, his father could see him maturing, caring for his new pit bull, Ace, and working 50 hours a week at Richman's Ice Cream & Burger Co.

    ___

    "MY SON WASN'T A GOODY-TWO-SHOES KID, BUT HE WAS A GOOD PERSON ... JUST AN HONEST, LOYAL KID."

    - ANTHONY FINOCCHIARO

    ___

    One Friday night last July, Finocchiaro yelled to his father, who was doing laundry in the basement. He was running out to meet friends.

    "I regret that I was in the basement. Because if I wasn't in the basement, I would've been at that door when he walked out," Anthony Finocchiaro said. "Would that have changed things? I don't know. But I know (DiNardo) would've seen me at that door."

    Once at the farm, DiNardo, Kratz, and Finocchiaro ended up in a barn, where Finocchiaro was fatally shot.

    Anthony Finocchiaro stayed up until almost midnight, calling and texting his son, getting no answer.

    The next day, his son didn't show up for work. Anthony Finocchiaro began focusing in on DiNardo. Less than two weeks before, Finocchiaro had told his mother he was getting a ride home from Richman's with someone whose name she didn't recognize. Someone named Cosmo.

    Anthony Finocchiaro knew all his son's friends, and loved to joke around and tease them. But he didn't know Cosmo.

    By Saturday night, Anthony Finocchiaro had images from neighbors' security cameras of DiNardo's truck leaving the neighborhood, as well as the address of the farm. His son's cellphone pinged to an area near the farm.

    On Sunday, Bonnie Finocchiaro and a friend walked the property, banging on windows, yelling for her son.

    By Monday, the official search began. The excruciating wait continued, except now the families were together.

    "It sucked," Anthony Finocchiaro said. "Because you'd come home, and you know something is going on, but they're not telling you anything."

    Around 11:30 p.m. Wednesday, authorities arrived at the Finocchiaros' home. At midnight, District Attorney Matthew Weintraub would hold a news conference. They had found their son's body.

    "I knew it wasn't good"

    When her 21-year-old son went missing in July of last year, Melissa Fratanduono-Meo found a piece of paper on his bed with an address scribbled on it. She could make out "Street Road" and "Peddler's Village." So, in the middle of the night, she drove there.

    At 2 a.m., the restless mother pulled to the side of the road in Solebury Township, not far from the DiNardo farm. She got out of the car, calling out, "Thomas, Thomas," over and over into the darkness.

    ___

    WHO THEY WERE

    Tom Meo, 21

    "He never judged people and he was so curious." - Melissa Fratanduono-Meo

    ___

    Perhaps her son and his friend Mark Sturgis decided to camp in the area and were out of cellphone range.

    Later that day, she received a call from authorities. Meo's car had been found on a DiNardo property near the farm. His diabetes kit was inside. He could not live without it.

    "At that point, I just lost it," she said. "I started screaming."

    Her mind would not yet allow her to imagine the worst.

    "I could never think up that nightmare," she said. "But I knew it wasn't good, that's for sure."

    On Friday, she had awakened her son before work and given him a kiss goodbye as he lay in bed. When he finished his construction work with Sturgis and Sturgis' father, Meo stopped at home for a bowl of mint chocolate chip ice cream with his 13-year-old sister, Gabriella. She would be the last in the family to see him alive.

    Fratanduono-Meo sensed something was wrong when her son's girlfriend called the house Saturday morning to ask when he was coming to visit her in Philadelphia. She thought her son was already there.

    The next few days were a blur. Tuesday and Wednesday nights, Fratanduono-Meo slept in her car at the DiNardo farm.

    "I didn't want to leave until I knew that Thomas wasn't there," she said.

    A single mother, she was so proud of the young man she had raised. Today, she said, she tries to embody his kindness, his curiosity about the world, and the way he never judged anyone.

    "I feel so sad and broken and angry," she said. "But when I think about how Thomas was . it makes me want to go on."

    Carrying on together

    "You got to work tomorrow, you big dummy. Don't be out late," Mark Potash jokingly told his son.

    It was July 7, 2017. Mark Sturgis, 22, had just moved into an apartment at Potash's Pennsburg home and was going to hang out with Meo. The two had talked about it earlier that day as they worked construction with Potash.

    ___

    WHO THEY WERE

    Mark Sturgis, 22

    "If you would have met him, you would have instantly loved him." - Mark Potash

    ___

    Several hours later, Potash woke up and saw that Sturgis' car wasn't there.

    His son was grown, he reminded himself. Perhaps he and Meo went out drinking. They would show up for work in the morning, Potash thought.

    They never did.

    After killing Finocchiaro, DiNardo had picked up Sturgis and Meo near the farm, where Kratz was waiting. DiNardo and Kratz shot Sturgis and Meo, then crushed Meo with a backhoe. The cousins would return the next day to dig a 12˝-foot-deep hole, authorities say, and bury the bodies of their three victims.

    Sturgis' mother, Aimee Sturgis King, awoke Sunday to news that he was missing. She read that a young man named Dean Finocchiaro was missing, too, and frantically looked up the Finocchiaros' phone number.

    "I'll never forget the conversation, because she was hysterical," Anthony Finocchiaro said. "I didn't even know this woman, and we just sat there and cried."

    After he gave them the farm's address, Sturgis King; her husband, Thomas; and Potash, Sturgis' father, headed there.

    They walked the farm, and found bullet casings, a dirt pile, and backhoe tracks. They also smelled gunpowder, they said.

    For the next few days, "we were just in a daze, in a fog," Potash said. "You go through moments of sadness and you can't even believe it's going on. And then you find yourself having casual conversations and laughing momentarily. ... It was just an up-and-down roller coaster."

    While Sturgis' life came to a violent end, he lived as a peacemaker, his family said. In school, he stopped fights before they started. Always bigger and more mature than his peers, he would protect smaller boys, including Meo, said his parents.

    Sturgis King told DiNardo of these qualities at his sentencing.

    "I didn't think anything I had to say would get through to Cosmo DiNardo or make him feel any guilt," she said. "Someone who is capable of doing that, one after the other, without feeling guilt, is not going to feel any guilt from listening to what pain I'm in."

    Potash is motivated now by his pursuit for answers, among them how DiNardo was allowed freedom and access to guns and equipment despite his mental state.

    ___

    "I GET OUT OF BED FOR MARK, BECAUSE HE WOULDN'T WANT ME TO GIVE UP."

    - MARK POTASH

    ___

    "I get out of bed for Mark, because he wouldn't want me to give up," Potash said. "I want to just accomplish as many dreams and goals that he shared with me, for him."

    "And I just haven't reached a point where any of that makes me feel better yet," Sturgis King said.

    She hasn't been able to make the macaroni and cheese that her son loved. Sometimes she sees a movie trailer and instinctively grabs her phone, thinking, "Mark'll love this." She wishes he could have been around to see his Eagles win the Super Bowl. His dad would have loved to talk to him about the Conor McGregor-Floyd Mayweather fight (Sturgis swore McGregor would win, but Mayweather did).

    The other families help them carry on.

    "We watched each other and sat with each other and comforted each other and cried with each other and waited with each other and prayed with each other," Sturgis King said. "We went through everything together."

    Added Potash: "And we'll finish it together, too."

    https://www.usnews.com/news/best-sta...men-remain-raw
    In the Shadow of Your Wings
    1 A Prayer of David. Hear a just cause, O Lord; attend to my cry! Give ear to my prayer from lips free of deceit!

  9. #19
    Senior Member CnCP Legend CharlesMartel's Avatar
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    Court docs: Sean Kratz threatened brother, sister with gun before Solebury killings

    By James O’Malley
    The Intelligicer

    New court filings ahead of Sean Kratz’s trial for three murders last year detail an alleged history of violence and threats.

    Ten months before he participated in three gruesome murders in Solebury, Sean Kratz flashed a gun at his brother and told the 9-year-old he would “blow his brains out” and kill his sister, according to new filings from prosecutors.

    The alleged threat in September 2016 is one of two incidents Bucks County prosecutors say in motions filed Wednesday that they intend to present at Kratz’s trial if he, as they anticipate, presents himself to a jury as a “pawn” in his cousin Cosmo DiNardo’s murderous scheme.

    Defense attorneys the same day filed more than 100 pages of their own asks, including a motion to outsource prosecution to another law enforcement office.

    Kratz, 21, of Northeast Philadelphia, is charged with three counts of criminal homicide and faces the death penalty for the July 7, 2017, slayings of three men on a farm in Solebury. His cousin DiNardo, also 21, is serving four life sentences after pleading guilty to his role in the crimes as well as an additional killing a few days earlier.

    Having balked at his own plea deal in May, Kratz’s case is ongoing and he is next scheduled to appear in court in late October. He is not expected to go to trial until at least next year. He faces the death penalty.

    When his case does go to trial, attorney Keith Williams has asked that President Judge Jeffrey L. Finley pick a different stable of prosecutors to try the case. The Bucks County District Attorney’s Office, his motion argues, has become “personally and improperly involved in the case and is unable to make legal, rational decisions as to how it should proceed.”

    Williams in his motion says this comes as fallout from Kratz’s failed plea deal, and alleges the case has turned into a “personal vendetta” for county prosecutors.

    http://www.theintell.com/news/201808...ury-killings/1
    In the Shadow of Your Wings
    1 A Prayer of David. Hear a just cause, O Lord; attend to my cry! Give ear to my prayer from lips free of deceit!

  10. #20
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Edited:

    Jurors to hear confession tapes of Cosmo DiNardo’s cousin in Bucks County murder trial

    By Erin McCarthy
    Philly.com

    A jury will be able to hear Sean Kratz tell investigators how he and Cosmo DiNardo murdered three young men on a Solebury Township farm in July 2017.

    Bucks County Judge Jeffrey L. Finley denied a defense request to suppress Kratz’s April 2018 statement, given as part of a plea deal he backed out of at the last minute. Kratz's new attorney, A. Charles Peruto Jr., wanted the video recording thrown out, he said, because his client didn’t fully understand the terms of the deal.

    In rejecting the suppression request, the judge said he disagreed with that assertion.

    With Finley’s ruling on Monday, the case is ready to head to trial, although a date has not been set.

    Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Kratz, 22, of Northeast Philadelphia, who is charged with helping kill and bury three of his cousin DiNardo's four victims.

    In DiNardo’s confession — which won’t be admissible at Kratz’s trial unless DiNardo is called to testify — DiNardo said he lured his victims by saying he had marijuana to sell. But once the young men got to his parents’ 90-acre property, he shot and killed them, ran one over with a backhoe, and tried to burn the bodies before burying them.

    After Kratz balked at his plea deal, his now-former lawyer Craig Penglase admitted to leaking recordings of DiNardo’s and Kratz’s statements, parts of which aired on NBC10 and Fox29. On the tapes, according to the NBC10 report, Kratz tells investigators that he killed the three young men out of fear that DiNardo would hurt him or his family.

    https://www.philly.com/news/pennsylv...-20190513.html
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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