Guilty plea in killing of Loyola student

Pa. man shot Jimi Taro Patrick, 3 others then buried them on farm

DOYLESTOWN, PA. — A mentally disturbed son of privilege who ambushed and killed four young men — including a Loyola University of Maryland student — and burying them on his family’s suburban Philadelphia farm pleaded guilty Wednesday to murder charges that will put him behind bars for life.

Cosmo DiNardo’s plea, which was all but certain after he confessed last summer to avoid the death penalty, gave solace to a grieving father who turned to the stone-faced 21-year-old killer and told him: “Your only way out of prison is wearing a toe tag.”

“That’s the least we all deserve,” said Mark Potash, the father of 22-year-old victim, Mark Sturgis.

Melissa Fratanduono, the mother of 21-year-old victim Tom Meo, cursed at DiNardo, saying it has “taken everything” for her not to kill him herself.

DiNardo has a history of mental illness, including an involuntary commitment and a schizophrenia diagnosis, but his lawyer said mental health professionals weren’t sure they could have presented an insanity defense.

“Mental illness is real, mental illness is sad, and sometimes it can be tragic,” lawyer Fortunato Perri said.

DiNardo’s cousin and alleged accomplice, 21-year-old Sean Kratz, stunned prosecutors and victims’ relatives Wednesday when he rejected a plea deal. Prosecutors say they will now seek the death penalty against him.

DiNardo, the scion of a wealthy family, dabbled in dealing marijuana and customizing sneakers and portrayed himself on social media as “a savage.” He showed himself holding guns and sent aggressive messages to women he found attractive. Authorities saw him as the mastermind of the killings and charged him in all four deaths. Kratz was charged in three.

Potash called DiNardo a “perfect example of someone who started at the top and worked your way down to the gutter.”

“You think you’re savage?” Potash said. “You’ve lived your whole life protected. In prison, you’ll meet savage. And I promise you, it won’t look like you.”

Police found the men after a five-day search. Three were lit on fire and placed 12 feet (3-meters) deep in an oil tank converted into a pig roaster. DiNardo allegedly lured them to his family’s farm under the guise of making pot deals.

DiNardo quickly confessed, and District Attorney Matthew Weintraub said authorities might never have found 19-year-old Loyola student Jimi Taro Patrick’s body unless DiNardo told them where it was.

Patrick’s grandparents, who raised him since birth, asked DiNardo to pray for them and for his mother, so that someday they might be able to forgive him.

“My heart is broken, and I will never, ever be the same,” Sharon Patrick said.

DiNardo was expressionless as he pleaded guilty to charges including first-degree murder, conspiracy, robbery and abuse of a corpse.

“If there is anything I could do to take it back, I would,” said DiNardo. “I cannot come to terms with what occurred. I’m so sorry.”

Judge Jeffrey Finley dismissed that as “false and insincere.”

“To you, human lives are disposable,” Finley told DiNardo. “They have no value.”