Cobra Killer (16 page)

During the drive, a nervous Lockhart is recorded asking Roy to stop chewing his gum in a certain way and remarking, “I don’t feel well.” It would be the first of several indications that Lockhart was noticeably uncomfortable in his role as an “undercover agent” for the police.
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For his part, Roy remained cool, if not determined, and instructed Lockhart to explain his nervousness or apparent ill-at-ease appearance by saying he had just visited with his parents and an uncle and that “you’re not in the best of spirits.”
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Roy also cautioned Lockhart, “There’s probably gonna be lots of things brought up that you’re not gonna understand, you just need to go, go with it as far as what we’ve been talking about for the past couple of weeks, what for shooting and stuff…just let it go.”
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Just before the couple reached their destination, Lockhart offered a soft “I love you” to Roy, who replied, “I love you too. Just be strong, be strong, be yourself, don’t let (Cuadra and Kerekes) get under your skin…” He further advised that if Cuadra’s “buttercup shit” continued (an apparent code word for open sexual flirting Cuadra had initiated with Lockhart during their first visit and subsequent contacts), he should “let him do it a little bit…(and do) whatever you would normally do.”
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Four for lunch

At 2:45 P.M., fifteen minutes late for their luncheon appointment, Roy and Lockhart picked up their passengers, Harlow Cuadra and Joe Kerekes, from the front drive of the Marriott. From there the foursome battled San Diego traffic down Torey Pines Road to the tony Crab Catcher Restaurant perched on a cliff overlooking the ocean in La Jolla.
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The car ride consisted of casual conversation about the accommodations Cuadra and Kerekes had engaged at the Marriott Hotel, local gyms, background information about La Jolla and San Diego, and the weather. Cuadra and Kerekes would hardly have known the friendly conversation had a much wider audience.
Also unknown to them, undercover officers were not only following the vehicle, they were strategically located both inside the restaurant and at all of its exits.

The luncheon group would end up being seated near a window in the Crab Catcher Café rather than the main dining room because they didn’t arrive until after 3:00 P.M., more than a half hour late for their original reservation. Outside, investigators used telescopic lenses to photograph the entire meeting, further evidence to go with the concealed wire audio recordings.

As they discussed what to have for lunch, Lockhart volunteered during a discussion of planned photography and taping at San Diego’s infamous Black’s Beach that the entire Kocis murder had caused him “to lose a lot of friends.” Without prompting, Cuadra said, “Same here” followed by an apology from Kerekes: “Sorry man, sorry ’bout that.”
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It was Grant Roy, though, who brought the conversation over lunch into focus on areas that interested police listening and recording nearby. Roy brought up his and Lockhart’s struggles with their new venture LSG Media.

Cuadra was right on cue referring to Lockhart and Roy’s business partner, he asked: “What’s this guy’s problem? Why doesn’t he want to make money and get on the bandwagon?”
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The answer to that would be the troubles surrounding the Kocis murder, Roy suggested, and beliefs by some that Roy and Lockhart had somehow played a role in the murder. “When
this
happened, right around the first ten or thirteen days (after the murder), (our business partner) avoided us, and then when I finally forced a meeting with him, he said he was going a day or two later…to meet with (Kocis’ attorney Sean) Macias,” Roy replied.
“This,”
according to Roy, was the murder of Bryan Kocis.
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Roy also indicated an earlier business investor interested in helping Roy and Lockhart “buy out” shares of LSG Media held by their partner, had “become scarce” since
“this”
happened.
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The conversation would not linger on the murder long, as Cuadra and Kerekes pumped Roy for details about the settlement Lockhart had reached with Kocis and how it might impact future projects using the name Brent Corrigan.

Roy discussed his concerns that the settlement was still in effect because Kocis’ estate now held the rights to Cobra Video’s interests, and they might challenge or sue any new Brent Corrigan ventures.

Cuadra was unimpressed: “Fuck it, I say bring it.”
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Kerekes felt similarly: “You guys should just break away, man, just do it, break away.”
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The conversation captured on tape revealed an odd reality; Roy, Kerekes, and Cuadra talked openly and freely about what Lockhart could or would do in porn. Lockhart, of all four men, had the least to say on the subject. Whether that reflected his nervousness about the undercover operation or just how things always operated is unclear, but Roy would even sometimes paternally answer questions put directly to the younger Lockhart.

Given the Cobra settlement challenges that remained, Cuadra and Kerekes quickly turned the conversation into schemes that would allow them to work with Lockhart for their BoyBatter company and avoid having to pay anything to Cobra or the Kocis estate. At least for the purposes of this conversation, the schemes were ones Roy seemed to entertain, including one that would show Lockhart as being paid only $10 for a porno scene, meaning Cobra would only receive $2, the actual full payment would be paid under the table directly to Lockhart, cutting Cobra out.

Kerekes sought to reassure his potential new business partners: “One thing, Grant, we don’t, we’re not in this to hurt you guys or to screw Brent (Lockhart) at all, and the way I see this, if we film and we put it on our site, you guys are getting any money from CC Bill (one of the nation’s largest Internet credit card and check payment processing systems).”
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Kerekes offered to give Roy and Lockhart the pass codes to the existing CC Bill accounts supporting the BoyBatter and BoisRUs “so you can see what…we’ve made over the past two years, and you could see instantly how much it goes up because Brent’s on the site.”
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Despite his later claims of being lackluster in his interest in having Brent Corrigan appear with Cuadra, Kerekes continually pushed the idea of linking up with Lockhart, trying hard to lock down a price for at least three porno scenes between the two performers. Kerekes started the bidding at $2,000 per scene but could not get a firm commitment from Roy. The price quickly rose from $5,000 per scene to $6,000, all for a performer Kerekes claimed wasn’t important to him. Still, with no firm commitment in hand, Kerekes tried to sweeten the pot: “If you guys can give us, like, a word right now, and a time right tomorrow, I’ll give you an extra grand, seven grand cash, if you could gives us a time.”
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His desperation showing, Kerekes said, “I just wanna keep you guys happy and I wanna maybe secure some more stuff down the road, too.”
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Kerekes wasn’t done trying to secure a deal, as the group walked toward the restaurant exit, he posited a new idea: “Keep in mind the option too, of, like, we could do a two-year thing, like, where I pay you a grand a month, that, that turns out to be twenty-four thousand or as long as you want. I mean, that’s also an option.”
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To show their readiness to begin working with Lockhart, Cuadra revealed he had even thought up a story line and plot for their planned epic. Based on the 2001 film
The Fast and the Furious
starring Vin Diesel, Cuadra said he had lined up members of his classic car club to provide automobiles for the needed non-sexual “action” scenes.

As the group prepared to part, Roy excused himself to the men’s room and made a quick call to the detectives listening in. He was concerned about the quality of the audio via the intercept because a news helicopter was circling nearby as fire rescue crews worked to pluck a wayward surfer out of the La Jolla Cove as the tide continued to rise.

Lockhart remained tense.“I couldn’t mask my fear and nervousness, and I kept my mouth shut for the duration of (the luncheon), and I was visibly upset.”
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When he returned, Roy showed no signs of nervousness, and in fact returned with a new aggressiveness, challenging Cuadra and Kerekes directly about online references to Brent Corrigan as “Super Twink of the Millennium” and the male escort components of their website.

“What’s the deal there? I mean, I asked ya not to do it,” Roy said confrontationally. “That’s part of my reluctance in this whole thing, and ah, ya know the hell, the pure fuckin’ hell that we’ve been through the past three months, y’all don’t even know.”
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Roy went directly to the point of the Kocis murder and how it had directly impacted both him and Lockhart. “Ya know, when I told you in Vegas, when we were sitting there, and I said,
‘That
doesn’t need to happen because they’re gonna come to me first,’ and that’s exactly what the fuck has been happening,” Roy said. He lamented what he and Lockhart had had to deal with regarding the police and that Lockhart “doesn’t deserve it, ‘cause he had to fight this Cobra shit for the past two years and now this (murder) shit.”
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For once, Lockhart jumped in and added a dramatic flare: “My career is ruined…once everyone wanted to work with me, and everyone wanted to be involved with me, and now no one wants to touch me.”
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The tactic seemed to be working, at least to elicit sympathy from Kerekes and Cuadra, if not a confession. “I understand if you guys want to leave us alone,” Kerekes said. “Do you want us to go home?”
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Roy also took the occasion to confront the “threats” he said Kerekes had made against them following the Kocis murder, and the long period of silence that resulted between the two sides. Roy’s actions continued to put Kerekes and Cuadra back on their heels.

“I didn’t mean to threaten,” Kerekes said.
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Kerekes’ impulses seemed to fail him at this point. Instead of continuing down the line to reassure Roy that he and Cuadra could pay the funds needed to secure Lockhart for the joint venture, he began detailing the financial struggle he and Cuadra were facing, including another possible bankruptcy, because of the scrutiny they faced following the murder.

Roy seemed unmoved. He said, “I can’t understand, ya know why? I was in Vegas (with you) and we got everything, everything I wanted out of that meeting, and we got it and the following week when you’re putting the pressure on (Lockhart)…
all this shit happens.”
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Later, Roy would direct the issue again to Cuadra and Kerekes: “When we had dinner and you brought
that
up, I said, ‘No,
that
doesn’t need to happen.’” He added, “If anything happens to fuckin’ Bryan (Kocis), they’re coming after me and (Lockhart), and me most likely because I was the one that’s been most fuckin’ vocal about this since day one, screaming for everybody to do their fuckin’ jobs.”
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There it was. Roy laid it out openly and succinctly. He laid the responsibility for the murder of Bryan Kocis at the feet of Kerekes and Cuadra.

Kerekes managed a weak reply, “I wish I could change a few things with the situation, I can’t,” he said.
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Perhaps to lighten the mood, or to offer some hope amidst the now tense discussion, Cuadra and Kerekes began gloating that their attorney Barry Taylor had told them Luzerne County officials had failed in their effort to gain more federal search warrants.

“Yeah, the judge wouldn’t issue (one),” Cuadra said. “They wanted to take it federal so they could come and get another warrant to search our place again.”
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It is here again where Taylor’s relaying of information from Luzerne County authorities didn’t well serve Cuadra and Kerekes. In addition to the erroneous idea that Luzerne County authorities lacked the ability to get more search warrants, the “back burner” idea surfaced as well. “Barry said the Lieutenant (likely Leo Hannon) called him and (the police) put it on the back burner, and they said there’s other pressing things like a mass grave they just found up there,” Kerekes relayed. He expressed confidence that Pennsylvania authorities would soon be returning their prized 2257 age of consent forms, and computers taken during the February raid on their home.

“I jumped for joy when the federal judge said ‘not good enough,’” Cuadra said.

In fact, Cuadra and Kerekes had regained the guns taken from their home during the search, but their other property would never be returned.

Their falsely claimed optimism bubbling over, Kerekes said, “Our lawyer’s actually very happy right now, the way things are going…that’s why we came (to California), we’re not looking over our shoulder right now.”
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At 4:42 P.M., the group finished their lunch and walked the half mile down Prospect Street to a small shopping district located there, near popular La Jolla Cove Park. Roy seemed intent on driving home his point, noting that he and Lockhart woke up from the “bad dream” of dealing with the legal struggle with Kocis to a “fuckin’ nightmare” regarding his murder.

Kerekes asked sheepishly, “Want to throw me (off) the cliff?”

Cuadra jumped in and answered for Roy: “Yes, he does. It’s getting better though, especially with the news that we got the other day. Everything’s getting better.”
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As the group ended its after-lunch walk, Kerekes seemed to regain his confidence. Kerekes said he understood Roy “need(ed) to vent” his frustrations, but said, “You understand why I’m not talking more about
anything
, right? I don’t know if there’s a wire on you.”
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