"A man from Georgia testified he gave $70,000 to homicide suspect Harlow Cuadra.
Howard Mitch Halford, of Atlanta, told the jury that he is in "love" with Cuadra, 27, and gave him the keys to his residence as an option when Cuadra was a suspect in the death of Bryan Kocis in January 2007."
and
"A letter Cuadra wrote to another escort client, Nep Maliki, was shown to the jury.Halford's testimony looks to be the most useful for the defense:
In the letter dated June 13, 2007, Cuadra instructed Maliki on what to say to investigators.
Maliki, of Virginia Beach, testified that he kept the letter in his pocket for six months. Malicki further said he gave Cuadra $50 to his legal defense, donating the money on a Web site called freeharlow.com."
"Halford described the relationship with Cuadra and Kerekes as "a little puppy."Although this is to an extent being subtly countered by the prosecution, showing these guys to be lovesick loonies.
"Kerekes had such control over Harlow, how would I describe it, it was like a little puppy," Halford said."
You know, a thought just struck me...is the prosecution using these clients to showcase Harlow's manipulative powers?
Update: Photos above (and one below) are from the WNEP news story. Most of the segment features Halford, then covers to a slightly lesser extent Nep, and then a brief mention of a third witness. :-)
Actually, there is one very interesting moment on camera...about mid-way through, look for the moment when the reporter asks Harlow about Halford saying he loves him. Harlow's response is...well, judge for yourself.
Update 2: Facial features agape! More from the Times Leader on yesterday's star witness Mitch Hal(l)ford:
"Mouths opened and eyes widened among a few jurors on Wednesday when a customer of Harlow Cuadra’s male escort business in Virginia testified he gave Cuadra $70,000 to help pay for his defense on criminal homicide charges.By the way, is it "Halford" or "Hallford?" I've been seeing both...anyone know officially?
Howard Mitchell Hallford, 48, told the Luzerne County jury he gave the money to Cuadra, 27, because he loves him. Hallford, of Atlanta, Ga., further testified he gave Cuadra keys to his then-Virginia Beach, Va., residence in early 2007 as an “option” when Cuadra was a suspect in the murder of Bryan Kocis in Dallas Township in January 2007.
...
Hallford’s testimony appeared to affect the jury, several of whom readjusted themselves in their seats, leaned forward and wrote what he was saying in their notebooks.
Hallford said Cuadra told him to tell investigators that they were together the night Kocis was killed.
“Basically, he didn’t have an alibi for that night,” Hallford said.
Hallford told the jury he saw Cuadra once in late January 2007 and gave him $70,000 because he loves him. “That was the reason for the money,” Hallford said, apparently surprising the jury."
23 comments:
I can't for the life of me figure out why the prosecution call Mitch Halford -- what purpose did he serve for them? He sure helped the defense though. It seems like a blunder, unless there's a lot that's not being reported.
Maybe they questioned Halford about his proposed phony alibi story, but the TL neglected to mention it (yet)?
They obviously brought Nep's alibi tale up (ie, the Nep letter).
"Howard Halford testified Cuadra told him 'a bad alibi is better than no alibi.'"
NOW we know why he was called.
Yep.
A bad witness can be a "good" witness
LOL
Does anybody know if the cameras have been mentioned in the trial?
Wagner testified at the prelim that the video cameras were Bryan's but I have not heard if this was confirmed at the trial.
On the crabcather tapes Harlow said that they took all his video equipment.
so what is the deal are the Cameras in or out?
Actually, I can't recall.
Yes, Quicky said that Wagner identified the cameras as Bryan's when under direct, but on cross had to concede that they were just the same make and model, of thousands produced.
70K wow an expensive f*** indeed.
what does nep get for $50 bucks?
sorry could not resist nep comment :)
Harlow really believes in a good story, and how it will win out at the end of the day.
Perhaps Harlow's entire life has been won with a good story, and some smooth acting. Could this late chapter be won in a similar way?
It is amazing that he had several rich clients that were willing to part with big cash. The 70g, and then a 100 grand for attorney. I am assuming these are different clients, but may be the same.
Harlow could have driven the cars back to leasing, or bank holders, called each creditors and stated I am going BK, called Joe and said baby, its all over now. And moved in with, or be put up by one of these clients, and gone back to school while doing a little porn with Brent on the side.
In other words, he could have had it all even with a bankruptcy filing. All he had to do was kick Joe to the curb, and move on. Like said, baby, you ran me into the ground, and now I'm so out of here.
He'd have had money, a nice place, a nice car, and school while doing some (for him) hot video work in San Diego.
There must have been many many chances to do just this. But I guess if he was in love with this ten time loser Joe, it just never entered his mind.
Is the meth for sure a part of this ordeal?
so in effect the cameras were no proven to be Bryan's after all?
What is the deal with the defense calling joe as a witness for them?
Seems that his confession was based on him putting the blame on Harlow.
I don't think the jury is going to have any difficulty making the leap that they are the same cameras.
I think the defense wants to badger Joe into losing his cool on the stand, and show him to be the "dominent" one.
It's all about the sentence at this point. Death or life.
Well that could be the case about Joe and the cameras. But it might just backfire. Joe is a loose cannon but but we really don't know what he knows and what he is willing to tell the court.
I guess we will have to wait and see.
oh and Jim I am working on that post you asked about. There is allot of shit that I have to go through but it is coming along.
Yes, it'll be an organizational challenge I'm sure, but I have full faith in you Elm! :-)
OMG-
I have not passed the first paragraph yet-
Mitch Halford is "in love" with Harlow-
we have said it before - many times-
this stuff could NOT be made up.
This shit might work-??!!
Defenseless Harlow-
it is really hard to tell-
where the jurors minds are at,
if they are buying it.
The defense is going all out on it and they are going to slam it home with something-
jim,
I am definately not saying I told you so-
Just an info. thing-
remember way back I told you there are guys who DO spend this kind of cash on their boys-
the 70k's - the 100k's-
you did not seem to believe it at the time-
They really do- they buy them property, educations etc. etc.- some fall in love with their "boys" thinking the love is reciprocated [good acting by the boys]-
some want to control them-
Some of the boys just give "great sex" and that's enough for some of the wealthy- addictive stuff!
many of them out there.
V.J. said...
This shit might work-??!!
Defenseless Harlow-
it is really hard to tell-
where the jurors minds are at,
if they are buying it.
The defense is going all out on it and they are going to slam it home with something-
----
Melnick has not really told the story yet about what all this evidence means. His closing argument will be lengthy, putting it all (the evidence) together in a streamlined fashion.
The two hotel stays Marriott and Hilton were gone over, but there was no explaination of what it meant. Just that Harlow rented a room. Many people rent hotels even when they are local. Perhaps to entertain someone, perhaps to get some rest, whatever. But we were not told what this is about, nor anything else. It was all rolled out without the story behind it.
So I expect a good story worthy of a good case. The defense hopefuly also has a story to go along with all the evidence.
Closing arguments will not be short, at least from the procecution's side. Could be almost a full day of Melnick explaining each step of the story from money problems, emails to S&G, Vegas, PA trip planning, San Diego visit, Miami stay, alibi requests, jail letters & phone calls, etc.
The evidence presented thus far was not put in an exact chronical order. It was by type, with email/IP, phone, internet/web being almost all grouped together. So all this stuff must be reconstructed to tell the story with each bit of testimony referenced. It should pack a punch more powerful than when each piece was originally introduced.
Yeah, with so much evidence the closing statement will be critical.
V.J. said...
OMG-
I have not passed the first paragraph yet-
Mitch Halford is "in love" with Harlow-
we have said it before - many times-
this stuff could NOT be made up.
----
If they don't make a movie out of this, then I am going to.
Correct, you can't write fiction that is this good and unbelievable, at least not with a straight face.
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