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Thread: Murder goes from blog to book

  1. #1
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Murder goes from blog to book


    Harlow Cuadra and Joseph Kerekes


    Murder goes from blog to book

    First-time author Peter Conway describes his true crime book that chronicles the Dallas Township murder of Bryan Kocis as a page turner.

    Conway and published author Arthur E. Stoner worked together to write a 300-page book about the heinous murder in January 2007 and the coast-to-coast investigation.

    It also goes into great detail about the pornographic lives of Harlow Cuadra and Joseph Kerekes, and their ill-fated plot to kill Kocis, whom they considered their main rival in the production of gay adult films.

    Conway, of Norfolk, Va., became interested in the case when he learned Cuadra and Kerekes became the primary suspects in Kocis’ death.

    “I lived in the same apartment building as they did here in Virginia a few years ago,” Conway said in a telephone interview. “I never knew them per se. I rode the elevator with them a few times and always wondered why these two young men were driving $50,000 and $75,000 cars.”

    Conway created a blog that he regularly maintained about the investigation and subsequent arrests of Cuadra and Kerekes. In the year before Cuadra’s death penalty trial in March 2009, Conway said his blog had more than 200,000 visits.

    Kocis owned Cobra Video, a production company that produced adult films featuring young men.

    Cuadra and Kerekes were partners in their own adult production company based out of their house in Virginia Beach. Investigators said Cuadra and Kerekes killed Kocis to produce movies with Sean Lockhart, a contract modal for Cobra Video.

    Conway said his interest about writing a book sparked while covering Cuadra’s trial in Luzerne County Court.

    “It was around Harlow’s trial when I sat back and realized I had a massive amount of information about the case,” Conway said.

    “The blog was a book in itself. I had all this information and there was a heavy interest about the story. Not only in Northeastern Pennsylvania but across the country.”

    Conway said Stoner, an Indiana native who currently resides in Colorado, contacted him about writing a book.

    “Right after Harlow’s trial ended, Andrew called me and asked if I was thinking about writing a book. He wanted to make sure I wasn’t writing it. I thought about writing one but I never wrote a book before. I had the information and he had the writing skills. It worked out perfectly,” Conway noted.

    Stoner, a former newspaper crime reporter, has written several books in his career, including “Legacy of a Governor: The Life of Indiana’s Frank O’Bannon,” and “Notorious 92: Shocking murders in each of Indiana’s 92 counties.”

    Conway, who owns his own hotel marketing company, said the writing came easy to him considering his knowledge and vast amounts of documents he had about the case.

    He purchased most of the trial transcript and interviewed witnesses, several of the investigators and Luzerne County Assistant District Attorneys Michael Melnick and Shannon Crake.

    Stoner interviewed Kerekes in state prison.

    A jury convicted Cuadra of first-degree murder after a two week trial. He was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole after the jury was unable to reach a verdict on imposing the death penalty.

    Several weeks before Cuadra’s trial, Kerekes pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison.

    “I believe people will misunderstand the book by seeing its cover,” Conway said.

    “It really is a true crime book and it’s not written in a salacious way or anything like that. The book features the trial and the people involved in the trial. I still read it every now and then; it keeps you wanting to read more.”

    The book is titled, “Cobra Killer, Gay Porn, Murder and the Manhunt to Bring the Killers to Justice.” It is published by Magnus Books in New York City, N.Y., and is scheduled to be released in February 2012.

    Preordering the book began last week on amazon.com and borders.com.

    Conway said he expects to do several book signings in the area after the book is released.

  2. #2
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Convicted killer seeks new trial

    Harlow Cuadra says his abusive partner was the actual killer of porn-industry rival.

    Convicted murderer Harlow Cuadra appeared in Luzerne County Court on Monday for a hearing on a request to have a new trial in the January 2007 death of a Dallas Township man.

    But Cuadra’s attorney, Demetrius Fannick, said that after the two met this weekend to discuss Cuadra’s testimony at Monday’s hearing, new information came up and now Fannick needs more time to address those issues.

    Cuadra, 31, of Virginia Beach, Va., was convicted in March 2009 of first-degree murder in the killing of Bryan Kocis, 44, inside Kocis’ Midland Drive home that was set on fire on Jan. 24, 2007.

    Prosecutors allege Cuadra and Joseph Kerekes, 39, planned to kill Kocis, their rival in the pornography industry.

    Cuadra was convicted on the first-degree murder charge and sentenced to life in prison after a jury could not vote unanimously to impose the death penalty.

    Kerekes pleaded guilty to a second-degree murder charge in December 2008 and was sentenced to life in prison.

    On Monday, Fannick said that because Cuadra is perhaps the only witness he will call to testify about the claims in his post-conviction request, he needs more time to prepare for the new issues that came up.

    Fannick did not elaborate on those issues Monday but said he would file additional court papers outlining them.

    Assistant District Attorney Shannon Crake said after a discussion with Fannick she did not object to a rescheduled hearing.

    County Judge Fred Pierantoni rescheduled the hearing to Nov. 12 because of scheduling issues that prevented an earlier hearing. Pierantoni said he would be reluctant to grant any more requests for continuances regarding Cuadra’s request.

    Pierantoni said Fannick must file any additional court papers by July 3 and that prosecutors must respond by Aug. 5.

    In a Post-Conviction Relief Act filing, Cuadra said he should have a new trial because, among other claims, his attorneys at the time of his trial were ineffective, and Kerekes was the actual killer as well as an abusive boyfriend and business partner and controlled Cuadra.

    Prosecutors objected to the filing with their own in April, stating that Cuadra testified at his trial “at great length” that it was “all Joseph Kerekes” and used an “I didn’t do it” defense.

    Crake said in her filing the battered-spouse claim is “not a defense to a homicide charge,” his other claims are meritless, and Cuadra’s request for a new trial should be denied.

    Cuadra is serving his sentence at the State Correctional Institution at Coal Township and will remain there until the November hearing. He’ll be returned to the Luzerne County Correctional Facility a few days before.

    http://timesleader.com/news/local-ne...eeks-new-trial
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  3. #3
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    Killer couple: 2007 murder will be featured in TV series

    When producers from a national television show called local attorney Shelly Centini earlier this year to interview her about a criminal case, she assumed they were looking to talk about Hugo Selenski.

    Centini had represented the notorious killer for nearly two years prior to becoming embroiled in her own legal problems — witness intimidation charges that a judge eventually tossed out.

    But no, they weren’t calling about Selenski. They wanted to speak to her about a sensational 2007 murder of a gay male pornography producer in the Back Mountain.

    Her client, Joseph Kerekes, and his lover Harlow Cuadra killed their main rival Bryan Kocis, seen as the leader in industry. After stabbing him to death in his Dallas Township home, they burnt his house down.

    “Apparently people feel it’s still relevant and are interested,” Centini said Friday. “It’s been in the news and it doesn’t look like it’s going away anytime soon.”

    Books and blogs have documented the case for years and now the television station, the Oxygen Network, is set to feature the crime for its series called “Snapped: Killer Couples.”

    Part 1 premieres Sunday at 9 p.m. on the Oxygen Network.

    Centini is featured in a preview of the episode on the show’s website.

    “This case had everything. There was sex, deception, murder, arson, a ‘whodunit,’” she said.

    Investigators say Kerekes and Cuadra, gay male escorts and rising stars in the gay porn production industry, traveled from Virginia Beach, Virginia, to kill Kocis. At the time, Kerekes was 33 and Cuadra was 25. They had been trying to lure and sign Kocis’ star performer.

    Kerekes pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. His former lover Cuadra was convicted of first-degree murder at trial, but a jury deadlocked on whether he should get the death penalty. Both men are serving life in prison.

    http://citizensvoice.com/news/killer...ries-1.1959125

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