Convicted murderer Harlow Cuadra believed he deserved a new trial because his defense lawyers were ineffective and failed to present evidence his partner was the actual killer.

The state Superior Court on Friday rejected Cuadra’s request for relief, upholding his life sentence for the brutal slaying of Bryan Kocis on Jan. 24, 2007.

A Luzerne County jury — after a three-week trial before former judge Peter Paul Olszewski Jr. in March 2009 — convicted Cuadra, 33, with killing Kocis, 44, inside Kocis’ Dallas Township home he set ablaze in an attempt to cover up the murder.

Prosecutors alleged Cuadra and his partner, Joseph Kerekes, 41, planned to kill Kocis, their rival in the pornography industry.

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