January 26, 2018
Source/Bucks County District Attorney's Office
Cosmo DiNardo, 21, of Bensalem and his cousin, Sean Kratz, 21, of Northeast Philadelphia.
Cosmo DiNardo and cousin Sean Kratz are set for trial next fall in the gruesome murders of four young men on a Bucks County farm.
The trials for both DiNardo and Kratz are set to start the morning of Nov. 7 in Bucks County Common Pleas Court, with jury selection starting on Oct. 29, according to court dockets for both suspects.
President Judge Jeffrey Finley scheduled the next pre-trial status conference in the case for April 26 and set a May 11 deadline for any pretrial motion filings, according to The Intelligencer. Hearings on those motions would start Sept. 12.
DiNardo, 21, of Bensalem is charged in all four slayings last July while Kratz, 20, of Northeast Philadelphia is accused of taking part in three of the killings. The pair face a number of other criminal charges in the case, which shocked the community and gripped the Philadelphia area.
DiNardo is accused of killing Jimi Taro Patrick, 19, of Newtown Township, on July 5 and burying him in a grave on his parents' 80-acre farm in Solebury Township.
Both DiNardo and Kratz, 20, of Northeast Philadelphia, are accused of killing Thomas Meo, 21 of Plumstead; Dean Finocchiaro, 19, of Middletown; and Mark Sturgis, 22, of Pennsburg two days later. Their bodies were found in a 12-foot-deep grave on the farm that was discovered by cadaver dogs.
Prosecutors say DiNardo lured all four men to the farm when he allegedly promised to sell them large amounts of marijuana.
DiNardo allegedly confessed to the killings in July, according to statements from his lawyer and prosecutors. But both he and Kratz pleaded not guilty in December to the charges for their alleged roles in the slayings and attempts to cover it up.
Last week, the Intelligencer reported that Kratz was allegedly investigated in a shooting that left a man in a wheelchair. The report did not say when that shooting took place, but it did tie the shooting to Kratz being allegedly shot 19 times in an apparent retaliation shooting last March.
Court records show that Kratz has not been charged in that shooting.
