Pa. marijuana dealer details killing of men
Man says he shot buyers; cousin also held on murder rap.
Cosmo DiNardo says he crushed one of the four with a backhoe after shooting him, and tried to burn three bodies in one bin.
A pot dealer gave police a grisly account of killing four men on his family’s Pennsylvania farm, saying he crushed one of them with a backhoe after shooting him and tried to set three of the bodies on fire in the same metal bin, according to court documents filed Friday.
Twenty-year-old Cosmo DiNardo, who graduated from a Catholic prep school two years ago, said he killed a former schoolmate when he arrived with $800 to buy $8,000 worth of pot. He said he shot another man in the back as he tried to run away. And he pinned one of the deaths on a cousin charged Friday in the case, although the cousin, Sean Kratz, told police DiNardo shot all four of the victims.
The only motive disclosed by investigators was that DiNardo said he wanted to set the victims up when they came to the farm to buy marijuana. One man vanished July 5 and the others two days later.
Three of the slain men were buried at the farm in an oil tank that had been converted into a cooker. The FBI found them Wednesday after four days of methodical hand-digging in a spot that dogs had sniffed out.
Authorities might never have found the fourth body unless they worked with DiNardo, Bucks County District Attorney Matthew Weintraub said.
“I don’t know what convinced him (to confess),” Weintraub said at a news conference.
DiNardo told police where to find 19-year-old Loyola University of Maryland student Jimi Taro Patrick, and agreed to plead guilty to four counts of first-degree murder. In exchange, he will be spared the death penalty.
DiNardo’s history of mental illness includes involuntary commitment, a schizophrenia diagnosis and repeated contacts with police. He also suffered a head injury last year in an ATV accident.
The commitment meant he was barred from possessing guns, but nonetheless was charged in February with having a shotgun. He used at least two guns in the slayings, investigators said.
A person with firsthand knowledge of DiNardo’s confession said he acknowledged selling a variety of handguns to local residents.
In addition to the four homicide counts, DiNardo was charged with 20 other crimes, including abuse of corpse, conspiracy and robbery. His cousin, 20, faces 20 counts. Both were being held in jail without bail.
DiNardo’s parents, who own the farm property in Solebury as well as construction and concrete companies in Bensalem, where they live, declined to comment Thursday when they left a court building after their son confessed. Kratz’s mother, Vanessa, declined to comment on her son arrest when reached by phone.
Kratz told a judge Friday that he had no lawyer. She replied that he should hire one or apply for a public defender.
The other victims are 19-year-old Dean Finocchiaro, 22-year-old Mark Sturgis and 21-year-old Tom Meo. Patrick was a year behind DiNardo at Holy Ghost Prep School near Bensalem.