The Biz

Bryan Charles Kocis, the controversial owner of twink bareback studio Cobra Video, was discovered stabbed to death by firefighters Wednesday night when they responded to a fire at his Dallas Township, Pennsylvania home. 

Kocis' death was ruled a homicide during an autopsy on Thursday. He was determined to have died  before the fire started from multiple stab wounds to the torso and neck.

Kocis was a controversial figure in gay porn. In 2001 he was arrested on several felony and misdemeanor sex offenses but all of the charges were eventually dropped except for a single count of sexual abuse of children (which involved consensual sex with a 15 year-old boy). He was sentenced in May 2002 to one year probation.

More recently Kocis was embroiled in a nasty and very public dispute with former Cobra model Sean Lockhart, known to his fans as Brent Corrigan. In 2005 Lockhart accused Kocis of knowingly casting him in videos while he was underage. Kocis denied the allegation, claiming Lockhart misled him about his age. Cobra then took legal action against Lockhart to prevent him from using the name "Brent Corrigan."  A settlement conference involving the suit had been scheduled  for Feb. 21, but there are numerous reports that Cobra and Corrigan had come to an agreement in recent weeks.

State police investigator Lt. Frank Hackin said Kocis’ background and his business is being looked at as a motive to his murder. "We’re definitely interested in any people he associated with,” Hackin said. “We need to know as much about this victim as we can, his timeline, people he’s been associated with, people he’s been talking to. The victim’s past is going to lead us to solve this crime.”

• Gay porn producer slain [Times Leader]
• Cobra Video owner murdered [Gay Porn Blog]