A Bucks County judge will consider whether an out-of-town jury should be used and whether to suppress statements made by alleged killer Sean Kratz.
Prosecutors and Kratz’s defense team made their cases on Monday during a pretrial hearing at the Justice Center in Doylestown Borough before Judge Jeffrey Finley, who is expected to issue a decision on the issues mentioned in court.
Media reports noted that Kratz, 21, of Philadelphia, appeared in court wearing a prison-issued jumpsuit and sported two new tattoos on the side of his face.
Kratz is currently scheduled to face trial in April on multiple charges of homicide, conspiracy, robbery and related offenses stemming from the summer 2017 killings of Dean Finocchiaro, 19, of Middletown; Thomas Meo, 21, of Plumstead Township; and Mark Sturgis, 22, of Pennsburg, Montgomery County, at his upcoming trial. His cousin Cosmo DiNardo, 21, of Bensalem, is also accused of killing the three young men and Jimi Patrick, 19, of Newtown Township. In May, he was sentenced to four consecutive life terms in prison.
What led to Monday’s hearing is Kratz’s surprise decision to turn down the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office’s negotiated plea deal last May. The decision provided a dramatic shock to Kratz’s attorneys and prosecutors. That deal would have seen Kratz put in prison for 59 to 118 years. After 59 years, the now-21-year-old defendant would have been eligible for parole.
Philly.com reported that Kratz’s defense team on Monday made the argument that his April 2018 statement on the case to county authorities leading up to the plea hearing should be suppressed and not mentioned during the trial. Attorney Charles Peruto Jr. requested that a July 2017 interview with police should also be suppressed but he later withdrew that.
The beginning of Kratz’s four-hour recorded video interview with authorities was played in court before it was stopped, KYW Newsradio 1060 reported.
Clips of media coverage, including leaked confession audio that was aired on NBC 10 and Fox 29, were also shown in court.
Peruto and defense lawyer Julieanne E. Bateman, who was representing Kratz, told the judge that the media coverage and wide knowledge of the case had saturated the county and made finding a fair in-county jury difficult, said an article in the Allentown Morning Call.
“We owe it to Bucks County to be choosing from its own residents,” said Deputy District Attorney Gregg Shore, according to the Morning Call.
In filings, Kratz’s attorney Niels Eriksen said that his client should not face the death penalty if DiNardo was sentenced to life in prison, the report stated.
Members of the four victims’ families were present for the pretrial hearing.
Last year, a gag order was issued in the case. To comply with the order, the prosecution and defense have not commented on the case to the media.
NewtownPANow.com reported in October 2018 that Kratz was shot 19 times while in Northeast Philadelphia months before the killings at the DiNardo family farm in Solebury. At the time of his arrest for his alleged role in the Solebury homicides, Kratz walked with a limp due to his injuries from the March 2017 shooting.
