WILKES-BARRE, Pa. - After nearly a week of anticipation, Joseph Kerekes took the witness stand on behalf of the defense in the capital murder trial of his former lover, Harlow Cuadra. In December Kerekes, 35, pleaded guilty to participating in the crime and accepted a sentence of life without parole.
Fewer than five minutes after he was sworn in, Kerekes told Joseph D'Andrea, the defense attorney who questioned him, "I've been thinking a lot about my parents. I think it will destroy them to say something that I didn't do.
"What I told you [D'Andrea] is untrue," he added, after confirming he met several times with Cuadra's defense team before last week's surprise announcement of Kerekes' appearance as a witness.
Kerekes' change of heart about testifying meant prosecutors did not have an opportunity to question him.
Cuadra, 27, faces a potential death sentence if he is convicted of the January 2007 stabbing and immolation death of Bryan Kocis, 44, a former business rival in the gay adult entertainment industry. Against his attorneys' advice, he took the stand in his own defense after Kerekes was removed from the courtroom by sheriff's deputies.
During tearful testimony, Cuadra told the jury Kerekes forced him to leave the Navy, work as a male prostitute and perform in gay adult movies. It was while Cuadra and Kocis were engaged in a casting interview for one of those movies that Kerekes stormed into Kocis' rural Pennsylvania home, slit his throat, stabbed him 28 times and then set fire to the residence, Cuadra said.
Cuadra characterized Kerekes as a domineering, brutal, jealous man with a mean temper and a lack of self-control. Kocis' murder was the result of Kerekes' jealousy, Cuadra told the court, not a business dispute over gay porn star Brent Corrigan.
Prosecutors and witnesses have alleged Kerekes and Cuadra wanted to employ Corrigan as part of a scheme to create multimillion-dollar gay porn, but Corrigan's exclusive contract with Kocis' Cobra Video stood in the way.
Although prosecution witnesses testified Cuadra and Kerekes together bought a gun, ammunition and a knife at a Virginia pawn shop days before the murder, Cuadra said he was unaware of any pre-existing plan to kill Kocis.
In fact, he told the court, he tried to stop Kerekes' assault on Kocis, but he became so scared after watching Kerekes slit Kocis' throat that he ran and hid in the rented Nissan XTerra he and Kerekes drove to Pennsylvania from their Virginia Beach, Va., home. Kerekes remained inside Kocis' house for 15 more minutes before carrying out some computer and video equipment, then setting fire to the structure.
"That was the longest day of my life," Cuadra said. "I completely shut down after that day, completely shut down. I stopped seeing clients."
Cuadra and Kerekes together owned an escort service that witnesses testified made as much as $10,000 weekly from the high-profile politicians and businessmen who were its clients.
After fleeing their Virginia Beach home due to what Cuadra called Kerekes' paranoia about the murder, the pair stayed in hotels from Virginia to Florida before returning to their hometown in April 2007. Cuadra said he wanted to contact investigators, who had declared him a "person of interest" in the crime, but Kerekes wouldn't let him.
Both men were arrested and charged with murdering Kocis in May 2007, after investigators intercepted allegedly incriminating conversations involving Cuadra, Kerekes, Corrigan and his business partner, Grant Roy. Roy and Corrigan cooperated with authorities and have not been charged with any crime.
Closing arguments in the case were expected to take place late Wednesday or Thursday morning.
