Harlow Cuadra Online

As most of you are aware, the first day of Harlow and Joe’s preliminary hearing was held yesterday, August 20, 2007 at 9:00 AM. The first day of the hearing went very well. There were a total of eleven witnesses.

The first witness was the Deputy Coroner, Bill Lisman, who is not a medical doctor. He testified as to the location and condition of Bryan’s body. Photos from the crime scene were shown during his testimony. He also gave his observations of the condition of the living room.

The Coroner, Dr. John Consalvo, testified next. He provided descriptions for the photos from the autopsy that were shown.  He stated that the head and fingers were so badly burned that dental records had to be used to positively identify the deceased as Bryan Kocis. He explained that there were no drugs found in Bryan’s system and that his blood alcohol level was the ecquiveilent of having consumed two 1-ounce drinks. He was shown a copy of the death certificate and confirmed that it listed the cause of death as “multiple stab wounds”. However, he also testified that the stab wounds were all post-mortem. He indicated that the neck slash, which nearly severed the head, was the cause of death. He testified that the knife used was straight edged, but that no measurements were taken to determine the depth of the stab wounds or any other characteristics of the knife.

The next witness was the manager of the Fox River Inn. He testified that a registration card had been filled out on January 23, 2007 in Joe’s name. He also testified that a photo ID would have been requested and that he had the person write down the ID number. He testified that the room was paid in cash for two nights and that no credit card imprint would have been taken. He also stated that he could not remember the person who registered and would not be able to recognize him. He testified that he did not receive any reports from the staff about any unusual or bloody items being found in the room and that nothing was reported missing from the room.

Then a neighbor who lived up the street from Bryan was called to the stand. He testified that he was walking his dog around 7:35 PM and saw a gray SUV parked in the driveway of Bryan’s house. He testified that it was not parked where he normally saw cars parked, but did not write down the license plate. He stated he did not see the SUV drive away and that he saw nothing unusual or suspicious while walking in front of Bryan’s house. He then testified that he remembers hearing the fire trucks drive by and looked out his front window and saw Bryan’s house in flames. He stated he recalled this being around 8:15 PM.

The next witness was a girl visiting the Bryan’s neighbor. She testified that she saw a vehicle back out of Bryan’s driveway. She could only say that it was “light colored” and was “bigger than my car… maybe a truck or SUV”. She did not see the occupants of the vehicle. She also testified about being alerted to the fire and leaving the neighbors house.

Then BoyBatter’s own Justin testified. His testimony was mostly about Joe and Harlow’s relationship and the business. He testified about his time working with BoyBatter. He also gave testimony about phone conversations and e-mails he had with both Joe and Harlow about trying to work with Peter Pan. He was unable to definitely identify who wrote the e-mails. He did testify that he had never heard Bryan’s name until he it was on the news after the murder. While he did testify that Cobra video was considered to be a rival, he also stated that there were many other companies (“thousands”) in the business and that they were all potentially rivals.

At this point the hearing was recessed for lunch and reconvened at 1:00 PM in the afternoon.

First up after lunch was the Fire Chief. He testified that he was actually at the firehouse when the dispatch call was received at 8:35 PM that night and that the firehouse is only about 1/3 of a mile from the crime scene. He indicated the first firefighters arrived on scene at 8:37 PM. He gave testimony about fighting the fire and sending teams in to search for any people in the house. He testified that once the body was discovered, he followed normal procedure and called in the Fire Marshall. He did state that he entered the premises briefly and then secured the scene while awaiting the Fire Marshall’s arrival.

The Fire Marshall then took the stand and gave testimony, accompanied by more photos, of his arrival around 10:15 PM. He then testified about his investigation. He indicated that he found no natural or accidental causes for the fire. He also indicated that he did not find any evidence of accelerants. He testified that he found evidence of a pillow and paper materials at the origin point. He also stated that he found evidence that the front door was at least partially open at the time of the fire. He did testify that the two smoke detectors in the house were found in locations other than where their mounting brackets were. He did not check them to see if they had batteries or if they worked and he did not collect them in to evidence. He also stated he did not collect any samples of the burned materials. He testified that he determined the cause of the fire was arson. He was unable to provide an estimate of the time the fire started and had not performed any tests to determine how quickly the fire would have started and spread to the level it did.

The next witness was a representative from the insurance company who testified briefly that he had processed the insurance claim on Bryan’s house. He stated that because the repair costs would exceed the value of the house, it was considered a “total loss”. He did state he received a report of items missing from the house.

Bryan’s father, Michael, then took the stand. He gave testimony about the items missing from the property. He was also questioned about when he was last in the house. He also stated that Bryan’s house was demolished last Friday at his request.

The final witness for the day was Robert Wagner, who stated he was “Bryan’s best friend”. He provided additional testimony about the missing items. He also testified that Bryan had told him about an appointment the night of Wednesday, January 24, 2007 with a new model. He said Bryan did send him photos of the model, but did not tell him the model’s name. He indicated that Harlow was the model in the photos. He testified that he had been at Bryan’s house the weekend before the crime and had been working on updating Bryan’s computer records. He stated he had a phone conversation with Bryan around 6:30 PM on the night of the crime. He also described the application process Bryan used for “fresh blood” (new models). He indicated that Bryan was a very private person, almost to the point of being a recluse.

Court adjourned at 4:00 PM with the hearing being continued until 1:00 PM on Thursday, August 23, 2007.

For those of you keeping score, the prosecution so far has proved that there was a murder, that there was an arson that someone checked into a hotel, that a car was in Bryan’s driveway and that the car left before the fire was reported. They have also proved that things were reported as missing from Bryan’s house and that someone made an appointment with Bryan by sent him pictures of Harlow.

Stay tuned for further updates.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 22nd, 2007 at 7:53 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.