GUILTY PA - Michael Kerkowski, 37, & Tammy Fassett, 36, murdered, Kingston, 3 May 2002

[OkieGranny]

http://www.timesleader.com/news/local-news/50968517/

It's been more than 12 years since investigators believe Michael Jason Kerkowski, 37, and Tammy Lynn Fassett, 37, were strangled to death at Kerkowski's house on Pritchards Road in Hunlock Township.

Prosecutors believe Selenski and his former associate, Paul Weakley, planned to rob Kerkowski for money to cover a check Selenski's then-girlfriend, Christina Strom, issued to cover the closing cost of 479 Mount Olivet Road in Kingston Township. Strom purchased the house and 6.1 acres on April 30, 2002. Strom's check would have bounced until Selenski deposited $9,900 into Strom's account on May 4, 2002, a day after Kerkowski and Fassett, who was at Kerkowski's house, were killed, according to court records.

The bodies were unearthed by investigators on June 5, 2003, a day after Weakley allegedly admitted to knowing where they were buried. During the search of the property, investigators uncovered the charred human remains of Frank James, Adeiye Keiler, and a yet-to-be identified third person in a burn pit.

 

[OkieGranny]

http://wnep.com/2015/01/05/jury-selection-delayed-in-selenski-trial/

After years and years of delays, the second Hugo Selenski murder trial was supposed to start with jury selection on Monday, but the wait continues. The judge postponed jury selection until later this week while more legal wrangling played out at the Luzerne County Courthouse...

Prospective jurors are to report to the courthouse Wednesday morning to fill out questionnaires, then jury selection is scheduled to start Thursday.

 

[OkieGranny]

http://www.timesleader.com/news/local-news/151320988/

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a jury. Lawyers for double-homicide suspect Hugo Marcus Selenski and prosecutors chose their fourth and final alternate juror Thursday afternoon.

Opening statements begin next Wednesday morning, January 21.

 

[OkieGranny]

http://www.wfmz.com/news/Regional-P...rne-county-man-whose-yard-had-bodies/30836516

Opening statements are underway in the trial of a Luzerne County man charged in the strangulation deaths of a drug-dealing pharmacist and the pharmacist's girlfriend.

 

[OkieGranny]

http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/...uble-murder-suspect-lived-world-greed/283889/

Hugo Selenski needed about $10,000 to cover a check his girlfriend had written to purchase a house. He got that and far more, Luzerne County Assistant District Attorney Jarrett Ferentino told jurors in an opening statement that portrayed Selenski as greedy, manipulative and violent.

Selenski and co-conspirator Paul Weakley bound the victims and covered their eyes with duct tape, Ferentino told the jury. Kerkowski was beaten with a rolling pin, and he and Fassett were strangled with flex ties.

While he was being tortured, Kerkowski revealed the location of tens of thousands of dollars he'd hidden in the house, Ferentino said. After the killings, Selenski stole tens of thousands more that Kerkowski had given to his father for safekeeping -- at one point pointing a gun at the father and threatening him, the prosecutor said. Selenski blew through $100,000 of the pharmacist's money in three months, Ferentino said.

 

[OkieGranny]

http://citizensvoice.com/news/troop...eged-statements-to-kerkowski-family-1.1821745

Kerkowski's mother, Geraldine Kerkowski, testified Thursday that Selenski, who she thought was a trusted friend of her son's, was the first person she and her late husband contacted after their son and his girlfriend, Tammy Fassett, disappeared in May 2002.

Selenski soon began contacting them seeking money, supposedly to cover a legal defense for Kerkowski, a pharmacist awaiting sentencing on drug charges for illegally selling hundreds of thousands of dollars of prescription painkillers.

 

[OkieGranny]

http://www.mcall.com/news/nationworld/pennsylvania/mc-hugo-selenski-trial-0123-20150123-story.html

A man charged with killing a pharmacist and the pharmacist's girlfriend looked sweaty and had a pick and shovel nearby on the day authorities say he buried the victims' bodies, a witness testified Friday...

Steiner, 78, had just sold the 7-acre property north of Wilkes-Barre to Selenski's girlfriend and was still living there when Selenski told him he "had something to do at the house."

The following day, Steiner came home from work and saw Selenski and another man, Paul Weakley. "They looked sweaty, like they were doing something hard," Steiner told the jury. "Their feet were muddy."

 

[OkieGranny]

http://www.timesleader.com/news/news/151501816/

Strom took the witness stand Monday in Luzerne County Court to testify against her ex-boyfriend Hugo Selenski in his capital murder trial...

Bank documents read in court indicate more $153,000 in expenditures from Strom’s bank account. She was earning a salary at the time of about $55,000. Selenski’s 2002 W-2 form indicated an income of $187 for the year.

When asked where the money came from, she replied again and again with one word: “Hugo.”

 

[OkieGranny]

http://wnep.com/2015/01/27/selenskis-alleged-accomplice-testifies/

Gruesome details were revealed Tuesday in court as Hugo Selenski’s alleged accomplice took the stand...

A jury and a crowded courtroom hung on almost every word Paul Weakley said in court as he recalled May 3, 2002, the day Weakley says that he and Hugo Selenski robbed, beat, and killed Michael Kerkowski and Tammy Fassett...

Weakley demonstrated in court how he says he and Selenski bound the victims with zip ties and took turns torturing Kerkowski in an effort to find out where he had hidden tens of thousands of dollars in cash, at one point saying, “I told Mr. Kerkowski to nod his head when he was ready to tell me where the money was. Then I put a zip tie around his neck and tightened it.”

 

[OkieGranny]

http://www.lewistownsentinel.com/pa...-man-with-bodies-in-yard.html?isap=1&nav=5016

Kerkowski considered Selenski his best friend, but Selenski held a different view, Weakley told the jury. "Mr. Selenski hated Mr. Kerkowski. It wasn't a friendship at all. It was a financial relationship," he said.

Selenski told Kerkowski he could help the pharmacist with his court case, and Kerkowski gave him tens of thousands of dollars for legal work that Selenski never performed, Weakley said.

Selenski told Weakley that Kerkowski had "millions of dollars stashed at his house," Weakley said, and he wanted Weakley's help in robbing and killing Kerkowski before the pharmacist headed to prison.

 

[OkieGranny]

http://standardspeaker.com/news/cel...ify-during-week-3-of-selenski-trial-1.1826507

Testimony on Friday in Selenski’s double-murder trial ended with a state trooper with the forensics unit describing the photos he took at the autopsy and the work to remove the flex ties around the necks, wrists and ankles of the victims.

Baden, who is frequently sought by national news outlets to comment on high-profile deaths and murders, will be called this week to explain his findings when he examined the remains of Kerkowski and Fassett...

He appeared at Selenski’s last murder trial in March 2006 when Selenski faced charges of murdering drug dealers, Frank “Rudy” James, 29, and Adeiye “Redman” Keiler, 22, both of Brooklyn, New York. Selenski was later acquitted when a jury said they couldn’t put Selenski’s finger on the trigger of the murder weapon.

 

[OkieGranny]

http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/fo...y-from-missing-pharmacist-s-parents-1.1827034

"Pat the Rat" took the stand Tuesday morning and began signing like a bird.

Patrick Russin, 44, previously testified that he earned his moniker during Hugo Selenski's first murder trial in 2006, a trial that ended with Selenski acquitted of gunning down two drug dealers during a crack deal...

Now, with Selelenski facing another set of murder charges in the deaths of pharmacist Michael Kerkowski and his girlfriend, Tammy Fassett, Russin testified as he vowed to do in his plea agreement, telling jurors how he helped Selenski try to get money from Kerkowski's parents after the couple disappeared in May 2002.

 

[OkieGranny]

http://citizensvoice.com/news/russin-i-was-enlisted-by-selenski-1.1827312

Selenski claimed to be under “intense investigation” by the police for helping Kerkowski flee and asked for Russin’s help getting the money, he said. Eventually Selenski sent Russin to Kerkowski’s parents’ Dallas house — a location Selenski had frequently driven past — with instructions for him to pick up a $40,000 “package,” Russin testified.

With Selenski listening in on a cellphone, Russin went to the door under the impression the meeting was pre-arranged and there would be no problems, he said. But Kerkowski’s father, Michael S. Kerkowski, refused to hand over any cash, saying he wanted to talk to his son, who he believed was dead, Russin said.

By that point, prosecutors say, the Kerkowskis had already given Selenski $60,000 their son had hidden in their basement. Selenski knew how much was hidden and where, according to previous testimony read from Michael S. Kerkowski, who has since died.

 

[mikkismom]

Prosecution Rests in Trial of Man With 5 Bodies in Yard

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/jeweler-bound-robbed-man-bodies-yard-28720774

 

[OkieGranny]

http://www.timesleader.com/news/news/151681237/

Calling 30 witnesses in 10 days — including a senior judge, a celebrity pathologist and two dead men — prosecutors in Luzerne County made their case against Hugo Selenski...

As his defense begins building its case Thursday morning, here’s a look a closer look at the eclectic group that has already testified...

 

[PastTense]

A man on trial in the 2002 strangulation deaths of a pharmacist and the pharmacist's girlfriend launched his defense Thursday...

The defense began its case by calling several former neighbors who testified they visited the property after police say Selenski and the co-conspirator, Paul Weakley, buried the bodies. The neighbors testified they were never told that any area of the seven-acre property was off-limits to them.

Selenski's sister, 24-year-old Brook Selenski, told a jury she played at her brother's house as a kid, riding all-terrain vehicles and exploring the woods. She said the only restriction her brother ever placed on her was to "always wear a helmet."

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/witness-man-bodies-yard-allowed-atvs-property-28750592

 

[OkieGranny]

http://www.correctionsone.com/arres...nt-with-5-bodies-in-yard-Im-always-confident/

The defense rested its case Friday after calling witnesses they hope will convince a jury that Weakley lied about Selenski's involvement. Closing arguments in what is Selenski's second murder trial are scheduled for Monday.

"I'm always confident," Selenski told reporters as he was led from the courthouse. He declined to say why he didn't testify in his own defense. The defense instead focused on attacking his chief accuser's credibility.

 

[OkieGranny]

http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/as-selenski-trial-wraps-up-another-mystery-remains-1.1830517

As Hugo Selenski’s second double-murder trial comes to a close, prosecutors will be left to deal with one more mystery: a fifth set of remains...

Two of them were the relatively intact bodies of pharmacist Michael Kerkowski and his girlfriend, Tammy Fassett... More remains were discovered in and near a burn pit at the property at 479 Mount Olivet Road, and investigators had to sift through the teeth, jaws and bones to learn the death toll.

Investigators confirmed the site contained three sets of remains because they found three left mandibles, or jaw bones, Luzerne County Coroner Bill Lisman said Monday. “There was no identification ever made on the third left mandible,” Lisman said.

 

[OkieGranny]

Highlights of closing arguments:

http://citizensvoice.com/news/selen...e-jury-expected-to-deliberate-today-1.1830549

 

[OkieGranny]

http://www.kansascity.com/news/nation-world/article9721049.html

A jury on Wednesday asked for the definitions of first- and second-degree murder in the capital murder trial of a man accused of using plastic ties to strangle a pharmacist and his girlfriend in 2002, then burying their bodies in his yard...

Earlier Wednesday, jurors asked if their decision needed to be unanimous or if "majority rules." The judge told them all 12 need to agree on the verdict.

Other questions focused on the charges of robbery, theft, and solicitation to commit homicide.