Cosmo DiNardo Expected To Take Stand At Cousin's Trial: Reports

BUCKS COUNTY, PA — Cosmo DiNardo, serving a life sentence for four grisly murders on his family's Bucks County farm in 2017, is expected to take the stand to testify in the trial of his cousin, Sean Kratz, who is charged in connection with three of those homicides. According to multiple reports citing information from lawyers, both DiNardo and Kratz will take the stand during the trial.

Bucks County District Attorney's office spokesman, James O'Malley, citing a gag order on the case, said he could not comment on when or if DiNardo would testify.

DiNardo has already pleaded guilty and is serving a life sentence for four murders. However, Kratz rejected a plea deal.

The trial opened Wednesday in Bucks County court, where Kratz's lawyer gave an opening statement in which he reportedly called his client an "idiot" with a low IQ who was forced by his "lunatic" cousin to witness the crime spree.

Kratz, now 22, was "preyed upon by a psychopath," lawyer A. Charles Peruto said, according to multiple reports.

However, prosecutors with the Bucks County District Attorney's office countered by saying Kratz was on a mission to "kill, rob, burn, and bury bodies" during the July 2017 murders in Solebury Township. "It was one of the most horrific days in Bucks County history," Deputy District Attorney Mary Kate Kohler said during the opening statements, according to NBC10.

Kratz is charged in connection with the deaths of Dean Finocchiaro, 19, of Middletown Township, Tom Meo, 21, of Plumstead Township, and Mark Sturgis, 22, of Pennsburg. DiNardo also confessed to killing Jimi Patrick, 19, of Newtown Township.

4 Missing Men: The Solebury Farm Mystery Timeline

The slayings were connected to three separate drug transactions, authorities have said, and were carried out over the span of three days. Not all of the victims knew each other, but all were acquaintances with DiNardo.

Authorities say the victims were killed in three separate shootings, all of which took place on DiNardo's family's 90-acre farm on Lower York Road. Patrick was shot first, on July 5. DiNardo picked up Patrick at his Newtown home and took him to the property in Solebury after he agreed to sell him marijuana.

When Patrick came up short with money for the transaction, DiNardo took him to a remote part of the property and shot him with a .22-caliber rifle, investigators have said. DiNardo then used a backhoe that was on the property, dug a 6-foot hole and buried him.

Two days later, on July 7, DiNardo allegedly agreed to sell marijuana to Finocchiaro. DiNardo first picked up Kratz and drove to Finocchiaro's home in Middletown Township.

The pair agreed ahead of time that they would rob Finocchiaro, DiNardo told investigators.

Kratz, armed with a .357 handgun belonging to DiNardo's mother, drove with DiNardo and Finocchiaro to the Solebury property, where Kratz shot Finocchiaro in the head, authorities said in a probable cause affidavit. Kratz disputes that and says he did not pull the trigger.

DiNardo then took the gun and shot Finocchiaro a second time as he lay on the ground, the affidavit said. He then wrapped Finocchiaro in a blue tarp and placed in him a metal tank that he referred to as a "pig roaster," the affidavit said.

Later that same day, DiNardo met Meo and Sturgis at a church parking lot in Peddler's Village after setting up a meeting for a marijuana deal. Meo and Sturgis followed him to the Solebury property in Meo's Nissan Maxima, and after parking on Aquetong Road, they got into DiNardo's truck. The three drove to the Lower York Road property where Kratz was waiting, the affidavit said.

"When they turn their backs on me, I shot Tom in the back," DiNardo said, according to charging documents. Meo lay screaming on the ground as he shot Sturgis, who was trying to flee. But DiNardo ran out of ammunition at the point, he told investigators, so he used the backhoe to fatally injure Meo, Kratz told investigators.

DiNardo then allegedly used the backhoe to lift both bodies into the metal tank where he already had put Finocchiaro's body. He poured gasoline in the tank and lit it, then Kratz and DiNardo left the farm, the affidavit said.

DiNardo and Kratz returned to the property the next day and, using the backhoe, dug a 12.5-foot hole to bury the tank containing the three bodies, authorities said.

The bodies were found by cadaver dogs after several days of searching by multiple agencies.

Kratz has been held in prison since he was charged July 14, 2017.