In light of last week’s jury verdict holding Sean Kratz criminally responsible for the homicides of Dean Finocchiaro, Mark Sturgis, and Tom Meo, and with the understanding of the victims’ families, the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office today will end its pursuit of the death penalty in the case.

District Attorney Matthew D. Weintraub will be available to the press to discuss the decision later today at the conclusion of Kratz’s sentencing hearing.

Kratz, 22, of Philadelphia, faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison after he was convicted Friday of both first- and second-degree murder for the July 7, 2017, killing of 19-year-old Finocchiaro, of Middletown Township.

Jurors found Kratz conspired with his cousin Cosmo DiNardo to rob and kill Finocchiaro at a farm in Solebury owned by the DiNardo family where the young man’s remains were discovered burned and buried in a grave more than 12 feet deep.

The jury also found Kratz guilty of voluntary manslaughter in the shooting deaths of Sturgis, 22, of Pennsburg, Montgomery County, and Meo, 21, of Plumstead Township.

“I am awed by the grace demonstrated by the Finocchiaro family in helping me to make this difficult decision to not pursue the death penalty against the defendant,” Weintraub said. “But I am reminded, that we do this not for the defendant’s benefit, but for our own. It is the right thing to do, and now this criminal saga is over. I hope that the families of Jimi Patrick, Dean Finocchiaro, Tom Meo, and Mark Sturgis can take solace that both DiNardo and Kratz will die in prison for what they did to their boys.”

DiNardo, 22, pleaded guilty last year to his role in the grisly scheme and is serving four consecutive life sentences for the killings, including that of 19-year-old Newtown Township man Jimi Taro Patrick.

Contact: James O’Malley, 215.348.6298, jtomalley@buckscounty.org