Psych test in Karina case
They were murdered in a marijuana deal gone bad.
Cosmo DiNardo killed four young men and burned their bodies at his family’s farm after selling them pot, according to the Associated Press.
DiNardo had help shooting three of the men, a source with firsthand knowledge of his confession told the AP.
The victims were allegedly shot in the head or the back because DiNardo felt cheated or threatened during three drug transactions.
He sold quarter-pound quantities of marijuana for several thousand dollars and sold handguns to area residents, the AP reported.
The 20-year-old admitted to killing the quartet in exchange for a promise that the local prosecutor would not seek the death penalty, said defense attorney Paul Lang.
“I’m sorry,” a shackled DiNardo told reporters as he was led from the Bucks County Justice Center. The lawyer said DiNardo would plead guilty to all four murders.
DiNardo was already behind bars on $5 million bail Thursday after his arrest for trying to arrange the $5,000 sale of a car belonging to one of the victims. “In exchange for his confession, Mr. DiNardo was promised by the district attorney that he will spare his life,” said Lang.
The confession ended a gruesome and fascinating investigation that started with the July 5 disappearance of Jimi Taro Patrick, 19.
Victim Dean Finocchiaro, 19, was identified early Thursday after cadaver dogs sniffed out his remains. Mark Sturgis, 22, and Thomas Meo, 21, went missing two days after Patrick, as did Finocchiaro.
Lang said DiNardo directed authorities to the victims’ burial locations on the sprawling 90-acre property.
“This is a homicide, make no mistake about it,” said Bucks County District Attorney Matt Weintraub. “We just don’t know how many.”
Weintraub added cryptically that he knew “more than I’m sharing” about the ties between the suspect and the four other men.
DiNardo admitted “participation in the murders of four young men,” said Lang. The attorney declined to say whether anyone else was involved in the killings of the foursome, all residents of Bucks County.
There was no immediate comment from local police or prosecutors.
“It seemed almost like a horror film or something, just unraveling before our eyes,” said local resident Claire Vanderberg, 18.
DiNardo’s backstory emerged as the investigation continued: He was previously committed to a mental-health facility, was repeatedly involved with area police over the last six years and was banned from the campus at Arcadia University after a single semester.
A Snapchat photo viewed by the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News showed the bearded DiNardo holding what looks like a revolver while glaring into the camera. A BROOKLYN MAN accused of sexually abusing and beating a jogger to death in Howard Beach is undergoing a psychiatric evaluation, his lawyers said Thursday.
Chanel Lewis, 20, is charged with killing Karina Vetrano in weeds next to a running path near her home in August 2016.
Lewis’ defense team is having psychiatrists examine him as they gear up for hearings in front of Queens Supreme Court Justice Gregory Lasak at the end of the year.
As Lewis was escorted into the courtroom for the brief proceeding, the 30-year-old victim’s mother Cathy Vetrano angrily inched to the edge of a gallery bench and stared down Lewis.
The hearings will focus on the possibility of suppressing Lewis statements to police and whether they were legally obtained.