SELENSKI TRIAL

Keystone Press Awards Breaking News Entry Division III Bob Kalinowski James Halpin The Citizens’ Voice Wilkes-Barre, Pa.

It took 12 years to convict Hugo Selenski after the remains of at least four people were unearthed in his backyard. Fascinated readers followed his story as he climbed down a string of bedsheets to escape from a sixth-floor jail window, cultivated the admiration of lovestruck women who helped him with his defense, beat murder charges in the killings of two drug dealers and battled prosecutors, the courts and sometimes his own attorneys. The Citizens’ Voice blanketed his final trial with live tweets, regular web updates and videos and comprehensive print coverage. Here are the highlights.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 27, 2015

4 THE CITIZENS' VOICE

COMMONWEALTH VS. HUGO SELENSKI

MArk MorAN / ThE CiTizENS’ VoiCE

Christina Strom, right, the former girlfriend of Hugo Selenski, is led quickly to an elevator by Luzerne County District Attorney Stefanie Salavantis to testify in Selenski’s double-murder trial at the Luzerne County Courthouse on Monday.

Ex-girlfriend: Selenski spent tens of thousands Key witness testifies finding suspect with $60K in cash

DAY 4 RECAP

By James Halpin Staff Writer

The source of the cash was a mystery, but double murder suspect Hugo Selenski had lots of it back in 2002, according to his exgirlfriend.

Selenski, whose tax statement for that year shows an income of $187, somehow came up with more than $150,000 in cash that year, Christina Strom told jurors Monday.

He had money to put down on a house and for trips to Atlantic City, she said.

Money for an all-terrain vehicle and a pickup.

Money for diamond jewelry.

So much money that CovER she once came home to stoRY find Selenski and his alleged accomplice, Paul Weakley, with about $60,000 in cash laid out on a bed.

“When I went upstairs, there was cash all over the bed and they were rolling it into rolls with rubber bands,” Strom said.

WArrEN rudA / ThE CiTizENS’ VoiCE

Selenski leaves the courthouse at the end of the fourth day of his double-murder trial.

Selenski told her it was about $60,000 that pharmacist Michael Kerkowski had given him for his legal defense. At the time, Kerkowski was facing prison time for dealing hydrocodone and Oxycontin pills, a lucrative business prosecutors say earned him more than $800,000 in just a couple years.

Kerkowski later turned up dead, along with his girlfriend Tammy Fassett, in Selenski’s backyard.

Prosecutors allege Selenski and Weakley, who has pleaded guilty to

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murder and is expected to be a key witness in the case, beat the couple with a rolling pin at Kerkowski’s house in Hunlock Creek on May 3, 2002, to find out where Kerkowski had hidden his drug money.

They then strangled the pair with flex ties, prosecutors say.

Strom told jurors that during the same period, she’d seen flex ties in her car and around the house she shared with Selenski.

SEE TRIAL, NEXT PAGE

Hugo Selenski’s former girlfriend Christina Strom was on the witness stand for all of Monday’s court session. Highlights of her testimony include: n Strom said she pleaded guilty to perjury and money laundering charges years ago, and a requirement of her plea deal is that she testifies against Selenski.

She still is awaiting sentencing. She admitted she lied to a grand jury, telling them she had money stored away for a home down payment.

Why? “Hugo told me to,” she said. n Strom said she once walked in on Selenski and co-defendant Paul Weakley counting $60,000 on a bed when they lived in Luzerne.

Selenski said money came from his pharmacist friend Michael Kerkowski for legal assistance, she said. n Strom said she and Selenski sought to buy a house in 2002, and Selenski chose 479 Mount Olivet Road in Kingston Township. She was the only one listed on the mortgage because “Hugo didn’t have a job and didn’t have good credit.” n She took out a $149,000 mortgage, then wrote a check for $10,079 to cover closing costs. But,

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she only had $669 in the bank. She said Selenski told her he would get the money for her. Three days after Michael Kerkowski went missing, Selenski deposited $9,900 in her bank account. The check cleared and the house was theirs. n A month after Kerkowski went missing, Selenski was questioned by state police and later told Strom that “He’s probably in South America.” n Following a visit to Dallas police in January 2003, Selenski told Strom that “Paul (Weakley) did it,” but a judge told the jury to disregard the statement after a defense objection. n Prosecutors say Selenski spent $153,678 on jewelry, an ATV and trips to Atlantic City in 2002, despite a tax return that says he had $187 in income that year. Luzerne County First Assistant District Attorney Sam Sanguedolce repeatedly questioned Strom about purchases and asked “Where did that money come from?”

She repeatedly responded, “Hugo.” n Strom said many purchases were in her name, but the money came from Selenski. “I paid for the bills. Everything was in my name, but Hugo gave me money also.”

— Bob Kalinowski

COMMONWEALTH VS. HUGO SELENSKI

Trial: Strom’s testimony contradicts defense claims

“He was telling me things and I did not know what to believe and what not to believe,” Strom said.

Some of Strom’s testimony was at odds with defense claims made last week. Brown alleged during open statements that Weakley, who was living at the home for a time, is out to frame Selenski because he had seen the relationship he had with Strom and “wanted the life Hugo had.”

But Strom said Monday that she had never picked up on any jealousy — in fact Weakley later moved out of the house.

“I don’t know why he would have been,” Strom said. “I have no idea.”

Brown also told jurors during the opening that the source of the large sums of money Selenski had in 2002 was no mystery at all — most of it came from Strom, who held a job with Geico making $55,000 per year.

During cross-examination, Strom agreed that she was “financially stable and secure” and didn’t hesitate to buy the house with Selenski because she could afford the bills. But she denied having any money saved up when she and Selenski bought the Kingston Township house on seven acres.

In fact, she testified that on April 30, 2002, she wrote a $10,079 check as a down payment at the house despite having only $669 in the bank, she said.

“It was just a terrible feeling,” Strom said. “I didn’t think I was ever going to get this money.”

Selenski told her not to worry, that he would take care of it, she said. On May 6, 2002, three days after Kerkowski and Fassett disappeared, Selenski deposited $9,900 in her bank account to cover the check, she said.

Strom also provided more detail on another check referenced during testimony last week.

Retired state trooper Thomas Appleman previously told jurors that Selenski claimed Kerkowski was paying him for legal help when questioned about the couple’s disappearance.

During that probe, Selenski claimed Kerkowski had written him a $5,000 check from Kerkowski’s Eaton Township pharmacy, the Medicine Shoppe, the trooper said. The check was supposedly so Selenski could buy a computer to aid Kerkowski’s legal defense on the drug charges, as well as to cover his time and services, Appleman told jurors.

But Strom told jurors Monday morning that she recognized the writing on the check, and it is not Kerkowski’s.

“It’s written in Hugo’s handwriting,” Strom said.

A short time later, Selenski bought her diamond and tanzanite jewelry, she said.

Testimony is expected to resume at 10:30 a.m. today. jhalpin@citizensvoice.com 570-821-2058, @cvjimhalpin

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about a robbery, the first objection was raised. Then, the prosecution rephrased the question regarding an alleged statement made by Selenski. “Paul (Weakley) did it,” Selenski purportedly said.

Another objection led to another break. When court resumed, the prosecution went in a different line of questioning, bringing up the time Strom found a flex tie — Selenski’s alleged murder weapon — in her car.

Family matters It’s been repeatedly mentioned during trial that Selenski’s income Repetitive process for 2002 was $187, according to a W-2 form issued to him. That A 30-minute period of Strom’s pay was from Premium Builders, testimony on Monday went like which was owned by Selenski’s this: question, objection, sidebar uncle, Robert Higdon. Strom said with judge, and 10-minute break Selenski was working there when and then another question, they started dating in September objection, sidebar, and 10-minute break. That process played out one 2001. During Selenski’s first murder trial in 2006, Higdon was more time, even drawing a sigh a prosecution witness. Higdon from the courtroom gallery who testified he arrived at Selenski’s had to stand for the jury to leave the courtroom once again. The line home in Kingston Township and of questioning was in reference to saw him and another man around a fire in a burn pit. While Selenski questions the prosecution gave was acquitted of murder charges to Strom about a visit to Dallas in that trial, he was convicted of police with Selenski in January abuse of corpse for burning the 2003. When Strom said Selenski bodies of two people. mentioned having information

ask the attorneys Hugo Selenski’s ex-girlfriend Christina Strom — the person closest to Selenski around the time, prosecutors say, he robbed and murdered two people — took the witness stand Monday on Day 4 of his double-murder trial. She testified about sharing in the benefits of Selenski’s illegal proceeds, making her a crucial prosecution witness.

With that in mind:

throughout the course of the trial.

The prosecution team will also balance the strong first and last witnesses with a steady flow of Falvello other witnesses in a chronological order of events so that important evidence will not be overlooked by, or confusing to, At what point do prosecutors the jury.” decide to call key witnesses — Former Luzerne County during a trial?

Deputy District Attorney Alexis “The first and last witnesses at Falvello trial are important witnesses as Ask the Attorneys will be a regular feaeach provide a lasting impression on the jury. These witnesses will be ture during the Selenski trial. The credible and will present damaging Citizens’ Voice has asked a group of local attorneys to offer analysis evidence against the defendant, evidence that jurors will remember of the case.

online extras On the web: For a recap of the Hugo Selenski trial so far, visit www.citizensvoice. com/selenski for in-depth coverage, photos, courthouse video and more. When court resumes today, check back at www.citizensvoice. com for updates throughout the day.

On Twitter: Follow @cvbobkal and @cvjimhalpin for trial updates and breaking news throughout the day.

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TUESDAY, JANUARY 27, 2015 5

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BoB Sanchuk / Staff artiSt

Strom said on the witness stand Monday that she didn’t know where the money Selenski had was coming from. ‘He was telling me things and I did not know what to believe and what not to believe,’ she said.

Selenski’s tattoos Early in Christina Strom’s testimony on Monday, Luzerne County First Assistant District Attorney Sam Sanguedolce asked her about Selenski’s tattoos.

Several of Selenski’s tattoos were projected on a screen, including one on his right bicep that has the name “Tina” inside a scroll.

Strom on Monday testified their relationship was “great in the beginning.” Strom said she knew Selenski his whole life, as he played Little League baseball with her brother.

THE CITIZENS' VOICE

FROM PREVIOUS PAGE Strom’s testimony dominated Monday during the fourth day of Selenski’s capital murder trial. Testimony at times moved at a crawl — at one point Luzerne County Judge Fred A. Pierantoni III ordered three 10-minute breaks in just over a half hour’s time amid repeated defense objections, including one after Strom testified that Selenski had told her “Paul (Weakley) did that” in reference to Kerkowski’s disappearance.

Defense attorney Bernard Brown sought to accentuate Strom’s criminal past and its implications on her testimony, so much so that First Assistant District Attorney Sam Sanguedolce at one point objected to Brown’s “constant reference” that Strom was under oath Monday.

Jurors heard that Strom began dating Selenski in September 2001 and that she later faced federal perjury and money laundering charges in connection with the purchase of a house on Mount Olivet Road in Kingston Township.

She lied to a grand jury when she said she had money hidden away in an urn “because Hugo told me to tell them that I had money put away,” she testified. In fact, she had no money saved and was getting her cash from Selenski, she said.

Jurors heard that Strom’s sentencing in her federal case is contingent upon her testifying against Selenski. Brown said Strom had been facing up to 40 years in prison but is now looking at 20 years or less, and in fact could walk away without serving any time.

“I have absolutely no idea what’s going to happen,” Strom said. “I would cooperate and testify in these proceedings no matter what.”

The prosecution spent considerable time drawing jurors’ attention to the couple’s finances in 2002, detailing $153,678 in transactions between March and October that year including bank deposits of large quantities of cash, trips to Atlantic City, an ATV, an SUV, jewelry, furniture and more.

The defense, however, noted that the big spending began well before the murders — by the prosecution’s own numbers the couple spent $35,370 in March 2002 and $22,636 that April.

Asked repeatedly where the money had come from, Strom said simply: “Hugo.” She maintained she didn’t know where the money was coming from.

reporter’s notebook

COMMONWEALTH VS. HUGO SELENSKI

Weakley describes murders

Former Selenski friend says Hugo hated Kerkowski

Day 5 recap

By James Halpin Staff Writer

was not involved — where the bodies were buried and the vehicle used to transport them.

“All those statements at that point were filled with lies,” Weakley said.

But he told prosecutors that his story has been picked apart extensively, and now, with little hope of ever leaving prison, he only seeks to tell the truth.

“The truth is the only thing I had left to give,” Weakley said.

Jurors listened intently as Weakley’s dramatic tale of torture and murder unfolded in a packed courtroom, some of them casting frequent glances toward Selenski. At times, Selenski squinted his eyes and watched Weakley with a look of disbelief.

When it was over, he had little to say to reporters.

“Let’s get all sides done first,” Selenski said.

Weakley: A plan to rob and murder Weakley’s story began with him meeting Selenski in prison and a vow to meet up on the outside.

Weakley, from Michigan, soon met Kerkowski, who was paying Selenski for “legal advice” because of his

impending sentencing on drug charges.

But while Kerkowski apparently viewed Selenski as a man who had been through the system and knew how to work it, Selenski did not hold him in the same regard, Weakley testified. Selenski would sometimes run out the back door when Kerkowski knocked on the front to inquire about the status of work that never got done, he said.

“Mr. Selenski hated Mr. Kerkowski,” Weakley said. “It wasn’t a friendship at all. It was a financial relationship.”

Weakley said he first learned of Selenski’s plan to rob and murder Kerkowski days after his release from prison in March 2002.

“He said Mr. Kerkowski had millions of dollars stashed up at his house,” Weakley said. “I didn’t think it was millions, but I knew it was thousands.”

Weakley was initially reluctant because he thought Selenski was too close to Kerkowski and would be an obvious suspect, he said. But in April 2002 as Selenski and his girlfriend, Christina Strom, were preparing to finalize the purchase of a home at 479 Mount Olivet

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Road, Kingston Township, Selenski needed quick money and had a new sense of urgency — and a new idea, he said.

“The intention at this point was to make it look like he had fled” to avoid prison, Weakley said. “I thought it was a pretty good idea.”

On May 2, 2002, they gathered flex ties, duct tape, wire cutters and a 9mm handgun for the job. When Weakley learned he didn’t have to work the next day, they bumped up the plan to the afternoon of May 3, 2002, he said.

He did a little shopping at a Luzerne grocery store that day and pulled out $200 in cash in case something went wrong with the crime, he testified. Then, that afternoon, he and Selenski took a ride to Kerkowski’s house in Hunlock Creek.

They arrived to find Kerkowski and Fassett doing yard work. Fassett was a “curve ball,” but they made a quick call to include Fassett as collateral damage, he said.

Kerkowski came over and asked why they were there, and Selenski said they just wanted to talk, Weakley said.

See trial, page 4

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WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015 3

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Mark Moran / The CiTizenS’ VoiCe

Paul Weakley, center, is led to the courtroom under heavy guard Tuesday for the fifth day of Hugo Selenski’s double-murder trial at the Luzerne County Courthouse.

THE CITIZENS' VOICE

The flex ties around the neck, the duct tape over the eyes, the rolling pin blows to the knee and head had just one purpose.

“I want to inflict terror,” prosecution witness Paul Weakley testified Tuesday during the fifth day of Hugo Selenski’s capital murder trial. “It’s an attempt on my part to enhance the fear factor.”

The man bound and choked on a wooden stool in his Hunlock Creek basement was pharmacist Michael Kerkowski, who prosecutors say made more than $800,000 by illegally selling painkillers from his Eaton Township pharmacy, the Medicine Shoppe.

Selenski knew all about the money, and prosecutors say he wanted it for himself.

Selenski, 41, and Weakley, 46, plotted to torture and murder Kerkowski to get it, but they hadn’t planned on his girlfriend, Tammy Fassett, being at the house helping with yard work when they pulled into the driveway on May 3, 2002.

Selenski had a 9mm handgun, Weakley said. Weakley had wire cutters and flex ties, some already formed into large loops for quick deployment, he said. With Kerkowski’s sentencing — and likely prison time — only days away, they knew they needed to act, he said.

No matter what.

“The time was right. We just now had somebody else to deal with,” Weakley testified. “We weren’t going to take Tammy into consideration. She was just going to be a victim of our crime now.”

Weakley, a career criminal with a long history of robbery and burglary charges, has already pleaded guilty to the murders and is serving life in prison at U.S. Penitentiary Tucson in Arizona. He acknowledged prosecutors took the death penalty off the table in exchange for his testimony, as well as not pursuing child porn charges against him.

During cross-examination late Tuesday afternoon, defense attorney Bernard Brown repeatedly highlighted how Weakley’s story had changed over time. Weakley admitted he had lied about his involvement in the murders — he initially named another man who

Hugo Selenski’s former friend and co-defendant Paul Weakley was on the witness stand all of Tuesday during Day 5 of Selenski’s double-murder trial. Here are some of the most notable things he said: n Selenski tried to enlist Weakley’s help in robbing and killing Michael Kerkowski within two days of picking Weakley up from federal prison, Weakley said. After nearly two months, he finally agreed to Selenski’s plan. n “Mr. Selenski hated Mr. Kerkowski. It wasn’t a friendship at all. It was a financial relationship,” Weakley said about Kerkowski paying Selenski for “legal help.” n “Mr. Kerkowski at some point was going to prison. Hugo wanted to rob and murder him before he went to prison,” Weakley said.

Why? “Michael Kerkowski was a good source of money,” he said. n On May 3, 2002, Weakley said they showed up to carry out their plot and found out Kerkowski’s girlfriend, Tammy Fassett was also there. Weakley said he had reservations about also killing Fassett, but they still went along with the plan. n After being in the house for a while, Selenski pulled a gun and Weakley restrained the victims with flex ties. “I wanted to inflict terror.

I wanted the money. I wanted to enhance the fear factor,” Weakley said. “I took one, put it around (Kerkowski’s) neck and tightened it. I was trying to scare him. He’s blindfolded. His hands are tied.

He’s helpless.” n Selenski delivered the fatal blow, Weakley said. “The zip tie was put on so tight Mr. Kerkowski’s neck skin was coming through the locking mechanism. It couldn’t have been put on any tighter,” Weakley said. n After killing the couple, Weakley and Selenski planned to bury their bodies near a set of power lines, but Selenski “had a better idea” — bury them on Selenski’s property on Mount Olivet Road in Kingston Township, Weakley said. n A year later, while in trouble with the law, Weakley led police to the bodies and placed the blame on Selenski and Pat Russin. “I was trying protect myself. I was trying to isolate myself from charges,” Weakley said about initially telling police he only helped bury the bodies of Kerkowski and Fassett. n During cross-examination, Selenski defense attorney Bernard Brown asked Weakley, “You’re an admitted liar?” “Yes,” Weakley said.

“You’re an admitted thief?,” Brown asked. “I am,” Weakley said.

— Bob Kalinowski

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015

4 THE CITIZENS' VOICE

COMMONWEALTH VS. HUGO SELENSKI

Trial: ‘She was scared out of her mind’ from page 3 Inside, they sat at a kitchen table for about an hour while Selenski drank about a six pack of warm Coronas and talked, he testified.

But with the hour fast approaching when Kerkowski would have to leave and pick up his children from a Kingston day care, Weakley said he was getting nervous, and began casting glances at Selenski.

Selenski at last stood up and pulled the gun, he said.

“Get the (expletive) on the floor,” Weakley quoted Selenski as saying.

“Mr. Kerkowski kind of looked at him like, ‘Is this some kind of joke or something?’”

They bound the pair with flex ties and duct tape, hauling Kerkowski to the basement, he said. Weakley told jurors that he Mark Moran / The CiTizens’ VoiCe came back up and escorted Fassett Hugo Selenski brushes away media questions as he is led to an upstairs bedroom, where he into the Luzerne County Courthouse on Tuesday. told her they were just robbing Kerkowski and she should not be worried.

“She had asked me, ‘Why are you doing this?’” Weakley said. “She was scared out of her mind.”

As Weakley walked back down to the basement, he grabbed a decorative rolling pin off the wall.

“I was thinking that perhaps I could use it as a tool of interrogation,” Weakley said.

When Assistant District Attorney Jarrett Ferentino showed jurors the pin Tuesday, one of its handles had broken off.

Weakley’s detailed version of the murders Weakley testified that they put Kerkowski on a wooden stool in the basement, where Weakley wrapped the victim’s wrists 10 times with duct tape to prevent escape. He also taped his eyes shut, he said.

The goal, he said, was to get the combination to a large safe in the basement they believed contained a large amount of cash, he said.

Kerkowski claimed two people were needed to open the safe, but Weakley wasn’t buying it, he said.

He first beat Kerkowski with the rolling pin, but the victim maintained his story, he said. Weakley

BoB sanChuk / TiMes-shaMroCk

Evidence rests against the jury box as Paul Weakley testifies Tuesday. put the first flex tie around Kerkowski’s neck, but not too tight, he said.

“I was trying to scare him,” Weakley testified.

W h e n h e c u t t h e t i e o f f, Kerkowski directed them to a bank bag hidden in the ceiling containing about $20,000, he said.

But it wasn’t enough.

Weakley put a second flex tie around Kerkowski’s neck, this one

tight enough so he couldn’t breathe, he said. Weakley told Kerkowski to nod when he was ready to talk, and he cut the tie off after Kerkowski nodded to tell them where another bag containing $40,000 was hidden, he said.

It still wasn’t enough.

“We’re frantic for information,” Weakley said, noting they felt they were running out of time because Kerkowski was soon expected to

ASK THE ATTORNEYS

Pike

Hugo Selenski’s co-defendant Paul Weakley took the witness stand Tuesday and testified that he and Selenski plotted to rob and kill Michael Kerkowski and wound up also killing Kerkowski’s girlfriend, Tammy Fassett. Weakley pleaded guilty in federal court

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and is serving life in prison, so what incentive is there for him to testify? And what may a juror consider when deciding if Weakley is testifying truthfully?

“The believability of a witness’

help and soon left the house. Figuring he would stay in a hotel that night, Weakley went to the Wyoming Valley Mall, parking the car, and the two bodies, at the safest place he could think of — a police station.

“I figured that was the safest place for my car to be,” Weakley said. “Nobody would break into it.”

He couldn’t get Selenski on the phone, and when he finally encountered Selenski in a hotel parking lot, Selenski had a runny nose and appeared paranoid, Weakley said.

They eventually agreed to bury the bodies at the house Selenski and Strom were buying in Kingston Township, he said. They got the seller, who was still living in the house, to leave for the day and bought two shovels to use along with a pickax they already had for the job, he said.

They started digging in a natural depression, figuring they wouldn’t have to dig as deep, but a neighbor soon came over asking what they were doing, he said.

“The last thing we want is to have a conversation with his neighbor while we’re digging a hole to bury the bodies,” Weakley told jurors.

They gave him the cold shoulder and he left, he said. Weakley made repeated trips to a local hardware store to buy soil to be used to cover the bodies, he said.

In the weeks after, Selenski and Weakley contrived a plan to “hustle” Kerkowski’s parents by having Weakley tell them he needed $10,000 for a computer part so they could contact their son, he said.

That plan failed to work, but prosecutors say Selenski was later able to get $60,000 from them that Kerkowski had hidden in their basement. Kerkowski’s mother, Geraldine Kerkowski, testified last week that Selenski was able to tell Buried bodies her where the money was hidden.

Brown’s cross-examination of Later, they met back up at the house they shared in Luzerne to Weakley is set to resume today. discuss how to get rid of the bodjhalpin@citizensvoice.com ies, Weakley testified.

570-821-2058, @cvjimhalpin Selenski, however, was little

pick up his children.

At that point, Selenski began beating Kerkowski with the rolling pin, eventually splitting his forehead open, Weakley said.

“He’s like rolling around on the floor trying to avoid getting beaten,” Weakley said.

Kerkowski never gave up any other money at his house, but he did tell the pair he had more money hidden at his parents’ house, Weakley said. That he considered “misdirection,” thinking Kerkowski just wanted them to leave his house, he said.

Eventually, Selenski put a final flex tie around Kerkowski’s neck “extremely tight,” he said.

“It was put on to the point that Mr. Kerkowki’s neck skin was coming through the locking mechanism,” Weakley said. “It couldn’t have been put on any tighter.”

The unconscious Kerkowski’s face eventually turned purple, and he didn’t appear to be breathing after they finally cut the tie off, he said.

Selenski went upstairs, leaving Weakley to clean up the blood from Kerkowski’s head wound that was on the carpet as well as the gloves, flex ties and other items involved in the crime.

When Selenski came back down, he said Fassett had been taken care of, Weakley said. Weakley saw that she too had a flex tie tightened around her neck, he said.

They loaded the bodies into Weakley’s car along with the cash and some guns they stole from the house, and Weakley drove off, he said. Selenski stayed behind to straighten up — Kerkowski’s vehicle had been moved to accommodate removing the bodies, and the lawn mower and weed whacker the couple had been using when their killers arrived needed to get back into the garage, he said.

testimony — otherwise known as creditability — is left for each individual juror to decide. They can consider the witnesses’ prior inconsistent statements, prior convictions or personal bias against the defendant to determine if the witness is telling the truth. Mr. Weakley has already been sentenced in federal court, so what — hypothetically

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speaking — would motivate him to provide false testimony, if he was so inclined to do so? The answer may include personal animosity, hatred, pride or any other emotion that tends to show bias against the defendant. When it comes to a grudge, payback can be harsh.”

— Former Selenski attorney John Pike

COMMONWEALTH VS. HUGO SELENSKI

‘A long time coming’ Jury convicts Hugo Selenski of first-degree murder, several other charges

By James Halpin Staff Writer

News Flash

THE VERDICT: COUNT BY COUNT CRIMINAL HOMICIDE (Michael Kerkowski)

GUILTY

CRIMINAL HOMICIDE (Tammy Fassett)

GUILTY

CONSPIRACY TO COMMIT HOMICIDE (Kerkowski)

GUILTY

CONSPIRACY TO COMMIT HOMICIDE (Fassett)

GUILTY

SOLICITATION TO COMMIT HOMICIDE (enlist Rodney Samson)

NOT GUILTY

ROBBERY (Kerkowski)

GUILTY

ROBBERY (Fassett)

GUILTY

CONSPIRACY TO COMMIT ROBBERY (Kerkowski)

GUILTY

CONSPIRACY TO COMMIT ROBBERY (Fassett)

NOT GUILTY

THEFT ($2,000 cash from Kerkowski) “The elevator was full,” Ronald Selenski Jr. said as two deputies led him down the courthouse stairs, hands cuffed behind his back.

Luzerne County Sheriff Brian Szumski said Ronald Selenski Jr. was arrested on the third floor of the courthouse for “threatening members of the prosecution.”

Charges were pending Wednesday night, he said.

Attorneys in the case declined to comment on the verdict, citing a gag order that will remain in effect

GUILTY

until Selenski is sentenced.

After the verdict, defense attorney Edward Rymsza and First Assistant District Attorney Sam Sanguedolce requested the penalty phase begin next week because of “logistical issues” getting their witnesses to the courtroom. Luzerne County Judge Fred A. Pierantoni III ordered the jury to return at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday to begin hearing aggravating and mitigating factors in the case.

Selenski was convicted of being

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an accomplice, rather than a principal, to first-degree murder in both deaths. His co-conspirator, 45-yearold Paul Weakley, was a key witness early in the prosecution’s case against Selenski, offering jurors a dramatic tale of torture, robbery and murder.

Kerkowski, jurors heard, made more than $800,000 in two years selling hydrocodone and Oxycontin from his pharmacy, the Medicine Shoppe in Eaton Township. Just days after he and Fassett disappeared in May 2002, Kerkowski was set to be sentenced to prison for the crime.

Selenski saw Kerkowski as a “goose that laid the golden egg,” according to the prosecution, and set about using him for money under the pretext of offering knowledge of the judicial system he had gained because of his criminal past.

In f act, Selenski “hated” Kerkowski and wanted more and more of his money, Weakley said.

Initially reluctant to kill and rob Kerkowski, Weakley told jurors he eventually agreed when Selenski hatched a plan to do it just days before the sentencing to make it look as though Kerkowski had fled to avoid prison.

They drove to Kerkowski’s house in Hunlock Creek on May 3, 2002, unexpectedly finding Fassett there doing yard work — and quickly incorporating her into the plan, Weakley said.

They bound the couple with flex ties and used a rolling pin to beat Kerkowski to get him to talk about

22:51 | STAHLLERSA

where he had hidden his money, Weakley said. When Kerkowski stopped talking, they began choking him with flex ties, cutting them loose in time for him to gasp an answer, he said.

Eventually, they strangled the couple with flex ties and loaded them into Weakley’s car, he said.

Weakley claimed he left Selenski behind to clean up the crime scene.

That same afternoon, Kerkowski’s neighbor, Louise Besancon, saw Selenski riding away from the house in a brown car, she testified.

Selenski’s ex-girlfriend, Carey Bartoo, had such a brown car but told jurors she is a heroin addict and couldn’t remember if she picked him up.

“I can’t say yes that I did,” Bartoo said. “It’s a possibility that I did.”

Jurors heard from Geraldine Kerkowski as well as testimony from his late father, Michael S. Kerkowski, that they went to his Hunlock Creek home the night of the disappearance after getting a message that their son hadn’t picked up his children from day care.

They arrived to find vehicles and lawn equipment out of place, along with a door to the house that had been propped open. A vacuum cleaner had been left out and a decorative rolling pin that once hung on a kitchen wall was broken and underneath a couch in the basement, they said. They also noticed a quilt and their son’s surveillance tapes were missing.

See trial, page 4

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2015 3

WB_VOICE - DLY - 3 - 02/12/15

LoiS a. grimm / For The CiTizenS’ VoiCe

Hugo Selenski is escorted from the Luzerne County Courthouse on Wednesday, moments after he was convicted of the murders of Michael Kerkowski and Tammy Fassett.

THE CITIZENS' VOICE

He did the crime.

Now the jury will have to decide if he will do the time — or pay with his life.

After more than 11 hours of deliberations, the jury on Wednesday convicted 41-year-old Hugo Selenski of two counts of first-degree murder, robbery and related offenses in a trial that had been nearly 13 years in the making.

As the jury read its verdict, Selenski only blinked, listening without expression as he learned he will either spend the rest of his life in prison or die by First reported lethal injection Wednesday @ for torturing 8:19 p.m. p h a r m a c i s t M i c h a e l Delivered live to the cellphones and Kerkowski and email of readers his girlfriend moments later.

Tammy Fassett, citizeNsvoice.com both 37, in a robbery over money Kerkowski made illegally selling prescription painkillers.

“It’s been a long time coming,” said Kerkowski’s mother, Geraldine Kerkowski. After hearing the verdict, she wept, saying “13 years.”

Selenski had little to say as deputies escorted him in shackles back to the Luzerne County Correctional Facility.

“I’ve already told all of you that I will talk to you when this is over, and I will do that,” Selenski said to a throng of waiting media. “No questions right now.”

The courtroom was silent as the jury forewoman read the verdict, but afterward Selenski’s brother Ronald Selenski Jr. found himself in trouble with the law after an outburst. After leaving the courtroom, Ronald Selenski Jr., who testified during the trial that his brother had been trying to help Kerkowski with his legal troubles, rushed toward an elevator containing the victims’ families, prompting Luzerne County Detective Chaz Balogh to push him back.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2015

4 THE CITIZENS' VOICE

COMMONWEALTH VS. HUGO SELENSKI

Trial: A verdict years in the making from page 3 It wasn’t for more than a year that anyone knew for sure what had happened.

When Weakley led police to the bodies on June 5, 2003, Selenski appeared surprised that police were searching for bodies on his property, according to testimony.

Weakley told jurors the location had been Selenski’s idea.

According to Weakley, he and Selenski considered a few places to bury the bodies before settling on a depres- Kerkowski sion in the backyard of Selenski’s Kingston Township house as a last resort.

During the trial, the man who had just sold the house to Selenski’s new girlfriend, Christina Fassett Strom, testified that around the time of the murders he saw Selenski and Weakley standing near the driveway, sweaty with dirty tools nearby. A neighbor also told jurors he saw them digging at Lois A. Grimm / For The CiTizens’ VoiCe the grave site — a site several witLeaving court Wednesday, from left, are Luzerne County District Attorney Stefanie Salavan- nesses claimed Selenski warned visitors to avoid. tis, Geraldine Kerkowski, Michael Kerkowski’s mother; Assistant District Attorney Jarrett The defense disputed those Ferentino and First Assistant District Attorney Sam Sanguedolce. accounts, offering testimony from a number of people, including Selenski’s younger sister, Brook Selenski, who said kids playing at his house had no restrictions on where they could go.

Selenski’s former classmate Thomas Ladamus also told jurors that when Selenski hired him to do some excavation work on a retaining wall he had no limitations on access to the property.

The renovations and remodeling at Selenski’s house were also an issue at trial for a man who, according to tax records, earned only $187 in 2002. The defense sought to explain the apparent wealth of Selenski by the fact that Strom had a job that earned her $55,000 per year.

But prosecutors offered testimony from Selenski’s former associate, Paul Adamchick, who said Selenski once offered to kill a man for money. Selenski’s former electrician, Robert Gober, also testified that Selenski had told him he “kills people for a living.”

In the months after Kerkowski’s disappearance, Selenski began approaching his parents seeking Lois A. Grimm / For The CiTizens’ VoiCe cash, according to their testimony.

Their son had told them to trust SelHugo Selenski’s family, including sister, RuthAnn Selenski Pollard, right, leave court after enski, who was supposedly helping Wednesday’s verdict.

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with his drug case, and Selenski knew about the $60,000 Kerkowski had hidden in his parents’ basement.

They gave Selenski the money, which he claimed was for his legal defense, but he kept wanting more, they testified. As the parents grew suspicious because of the lack of communication with their son, Selenski grew more aggressive, once pulling a gun on Kerkowski’s father and firing a shot near his head to get $40,000, according to the father’s testimony.

Eventually, the parents demanded answers to questions only their son could answer — like who he brought to his first prom — that Selenski never answered, Geraldine Kerkowski said.

Seeking to demonstrate Selenski’s modus operandi, prosecutors put Monroe County jeweler Samuel Goosay on the stand to detail how Selenski and Weakley bound him with flex ties and put duct tape over his eyes as they robbed him at gunpoint. Jurors were not allowed to hear that Selenski had already been convicted of that robbery and is serving a 32½-to-65-year prison sentence for it.

But they did hear a jailhouse recording between Selenski and his father that offered jurors a different picture of the clean-cut, bespectacled man they have seen in court every day.

“I absolutely denied all charges, but if I did do it, who gives a (expletive)?” Selenski said.

During closing arguments, defense attorney Bernard Brown down-played that statement, saying Selenski was merely “trying to ease” his father, who was dying of liver cancer at the time. Brown emphasized that Weakley is an admitted career criminal and a liar, asserting that he was setting Selenski up and is only trying to get his life sentence reduced by telling a story prosecutors want to hear.

The story changed dramatically over the course of 17 police interviews, Brown said.

Sanguedolce countered that investigators had gotten through Weakley’s lies and now have his story backed up by corroborating evidence. Kerkowski and Fassett were “nothing more than flotsam and jetsam in the swift current in the life of Hugo Selenski,” he said.

“All of these people thought monsters didn’t exist, until Hugo Selenski befriended Michael Kerkowski,” Sanguedolce said. jhalpin@citizensvoice.com 570-821-2058, @cvjimhalpin

COMMONWEALTH VS. HUGO SELENSKI

Hugo Selenski: Through the years 1973 n Aug. 1: Hugo Marcus Selenski is born in Sioux City, Iowa, to Robert and Ruth Friend, who divorce before he is 5.

stemming from an incident in fall 2002, during which he allegedly robbed Kerkowski’s father of $40,000 and bilked him out of $60,000 more. n June 8: Investigators confirm 1991 the bodies are those of Kerkowski n June: Selenski graduates Dallas and Fassett.

High School second-to-last in his n June 9: Officials unearth more class of 153. Classmates vote him human remains at the site, later “most likely to be in detention.” identified as Frank James, 29, of n August: Selenski enlists in the New York City and Adeiye Ossasis Marines, but is discharged because Kieler, 23, of Kingston. An informant of failure to attend boot camp due claims that Selenski killed both men, to a motorcycle accident. He realleged drug dealers, on May 14 enlists, reports to basic training, but and burned their bodies in a pit. is discharged again for failure to n Oct. 6: Selenski is charged report he owed $3,000 in restitution with two counts of homicide in to Luzerne County Juvenile Court. the deaths of James and Kieler.

No charges are filed in connection 1994 with the deaths of Kerkowski and n June 10: Selenski, 21, and Fassett. another man rob Mellon Bank in n Oct. 10: Selenski escapes Plains Township. from the maximum security ward of n Dec. 9: Federal judge Luzerne County Correctional Facility sentences Selenski to six years, 10 at about 9:40 p.m. using bed sheets months in federal prison to climb down seven stories, then uses a mattress to scale a razor-wire 1995 fence. n June: Selenski is stabbed in n Oct. 13: Selenski surrenders federal prison, and later befriends to state police at 8:40 p.m. at his fellow inmate Paul Weakley.

Kingston Township home.

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2007 n June 12: Prosecutors appeal two issues in Selenski’s case to Superior Court.

2009 n April 18: The state Superior Court rules prosecutors can introduce evidence allegedly tying Selenski to a home invasion in Monroe County. n July 11: Selenski is convicted on all 14 charges for the 2003 home invasion of a Monroe County jeweler and is sentenced to 32½ to 65 years in state prison. He later appeals.

2011 n April 21: A state appeals court upholds Selenski’s 2009 conviction and 32½-to-65-year prison sentence for the Monroe County home invasion. The state Superior Court rejects Selenski’s contention that the case had been tainted by the prosecution’s reliance on Luzerne County evidence.

2012 n Jan. 5: President Judge Thomas F. Burke Jr. appoints Fred A. Pierantoni to preside over the Selenski case, the fifth judge assigned to the matter. n April 27: A state prison inmate is charged with plotting to kill Paul Weakley, the key prosecution witness in the Selenski case.

According to investigators, Michael Joseph Scerbo offered $1,000 to

WB_VOICE/PAGES [T05] | 02/11/15

AWAR D

2013 2 n Jan. 15: Scerbo, 40, pleads guilty in 4 Luzerne County Court L o criminal solicitation to off criminal homicide for plotting to kill Paul fo

Weakley. n April 12: The state Supreme Court declines to hear Selenski’s double jeopardy appeal. n Nov. 28: Weakley sends a letter to The Citizens’ Voice, claiming he is backing out of his promise to testify against Selenski at trial.

2014 n Jan. 27: Selenski and members of his defense team are indicted by a Dauphin County grand jury on charges of witness tampering. The grand presentment calls Selenski a “serial killer” and claims the remains of 12 people were found in his yard. n May 20: Scerbo is sentenced to at least 15 years in state prison for plotting to hire a hit man to kill Selenski co-defendant Paul Weakley, the key witness in Selenski’s murder case. n June 4: A magisterial district judge in Dauphin County dismisses all charges against Selenski’s defense team, and tosses out a majority of the charges against Selenski. n Aug. 29: The state Supreme Court vacates an April 2011 decision by the state Superior Court that upheld Selenski’s guilty verdict and 32½-to-65-year prison sentence for a Monroe County home invasion robbery. The court asked the Superior Court to reconsider. n Oct. 31: Judge approves a joint motion from prosecution and defense to delay Selenski trial.

Pierantoni sets trial to begin with jury selection on Jan. 5. n Dec. 29: Prosecution reveals in court papers that Selenski’s co-defendant, Paul Weakley, recently sent a letter indicating he will not testify. They ask to use past statements Weakley gave to investigators. The prosecution filing about Weakley includes a 10-page manifesto how, Weakley said, he and Selenski tortured and killed Kerkowski and Fassett.

— Compiled by Bob Kalinowski

22:05 | STAHLLERSA

The CiTizens’ VoiCe File

Hugo Selenski used bed sheets to escape from the Luzerne County Correctional Facility on Oct. 10, 2003.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2015 5

2002 n Feb. 28: A Wyoming County jury finds Kerkowski guilty of selling painkillers without a 2005 2 prescription. n Dec. 22: The n March: Weakley state Supreme ict is released from Court upholds other murders after verd Selenski charged with pages 3-5 Expanded coverage on federal prison and Olszewski’s goes to live with earlier ruling, Selenski. that have delayed ending appeals th n May 3: Kerkowski and his the trial for almost three years. girlfriend, Tammy Lynn Fassett of Meshoppen, go missing.

2006 n May 14: Kerkowski misses n March 1: Opening arguments his sentencing hearing and is are held in Selenski’s trial amid tight considered a fugitive from justice. security. National media outlets, such as NBC News and CNN, are 2003 on hand. n June 5: Two bodies are found n March 15: After three days in a shallow grave on the Kingston of deliberations, the jury clears Township property where Selenski Selenski of all charges except for lives with his girlfriend. Selenski, two counts of abuse of corpse. then 29, is arrested on charges Selenski is immediately arrested of robbery and related charges again and charged with the murders

VOICE Saturday, April 28, 2012

an undercover state trooper posing as a “hit man” to murder Selenski’s co-defendant Paul Weakley. n Aug. 6: BEARS DOWN PENS Selenski’s attorneys FORCE DECISIVE GAM4-1, E5 appeal to the state Superior Court, alleging Selenski is being subjected to double jeopardy. d

THE CITIZENS' VOICE

2004 n June 6: Selenski tells The Citizens’ Voice in an exclusive interview, “I’m not claiming I wasn’t involved, but there are other people involved.” n July 7: Luzerne County Judge Peter Paul Olszewski Jr. rules that a statement Selenski allegedly made — that police would nd five bodies fin n his property — on could not be used att a trial because Selenski was not S read his Miranda warnings. w WB_VOICE - CVDAILY

2001 n January: Selenski is released from federal prison n April 20: Pharmacist Michael Kerkowski is charged with selling drugs without a prescription at the Medicine Shoppe on Route 29, Eaton Township, Wyoming County.

He is later charged with involuntary manslaughter in conne ti ection with a customer’s poisoning death.

of Kerkowski and Fassett. n May 19: Authorities charge Selenski associate e Paul Weakley and d THE CITIZENS’ add a criminal conspiracy charge. The criminal conspiracy charge means authorities accuse the two of devising a plot together to kill. Many say the omission of that charge in the first case led d to Selenski’s acquittal. n June 14: At a preliminary hearing, prosecutors present new evidence, saying Selenski and Weakley used plastic flex ties to strangle Kerkowski and Fassett. n Aug. 24: Selenski is charged in a 2003 home invasion robbery in Chestnuthill Township, Monroe County. A jeweler says Selenski and Weakley barged into his home, bound his hands with flex ties, and put duct tape over his eyes and mouth.

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Victims’ families relieved

By Bob Kalinowski Staff Writer

The prosecution team exited the basement elevator and emerged with family members of Hugo Selenski’s victims.

Hand-in-hand, they walked the corridor with a sense of relief on their faces.

A jury just affirmed what they thought all along: Selenski killed their loved ones.

Geraldine Kerkowski, mother of Michael Kerkowski, held the hand of Luzerne County Assistant District Attorney Jarrett Ferentino, who promised justice for the murder of her son when he was assigned the case in March 2006.

Lisa Sands, sister of Tammy Fassett, was flanked by the county’s top prosecutor, Luzerne County District Attorney Stefanie Salavantis, and county detective, Gary Capitano, who broke open the case against Selenski in June 2003.

Minutes earlier, Kerkowski and Sands sat with hands clutched as an eerie silence befell the courtroom for sev-

Hugo Selenski’s brother, Ronald Selenski Jr., is led away in handcuffs Wednesday at the Luzerne County Courthouse. eral minutes until a staffer for the judge said, “All rise for the jury.”

The looks on their faces leaving court were the only indication how they felt as prosecutors advised them

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The case isn’t done. The jury convicted Selenski for the strangulation deaths of Michael Kerkowski and Fas-

sett, whose bodies were discovered buried in the yard of his Kingston Township home in June 2006. That same jury will soon decide whether Selenski deserves the death penalty or life in prison.

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Geraldine Kerkowski and Sands have previously told The Citizens’ Voice they wished Selenski gets the death penalty.

Some of Selenski’s family shuffled out of court, giving a simple “no comment.”

Selenski’s brother Ronald Selenski Jr. was escorted away in handcuffs after authorities said he rushed toward an elevator containing the victims’ families.

Seemingly unfazed by the verdict, Hugo Selenski uttered a familiar phrase while being led out of court by deputy sheriffs.

“I told all of you I will talk to you when it’s all over,” Selenski said.

It will be over soon.

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COMMONWEALTH VS. HUGO SELENSKI

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COURTESY OF PENNSYLvANIA DEPARTmENT OF CORRECTIONS

This gurney is used for executions at the Execution complex at State correctional institution at Rockview. There are 186 state prisoners, 183 men and three women, currently on death row in Pennsylvania. This includes two prisoners from luzerne county — convicted murderers george Banks and michael Bardo.

ON DEATH ROW A look at the history of capital punishment in Luzerne County

BY THE NUMBERS

By Bob Kalinowski staff writer

The last Luzerne County criminal executed by the state was a Hanover Township coal miner put to death in 1938 for a deadly mail bombing spree, according to state records.

Luzerne County prosecutors want Hugo Selenski to be next.

A jury last week convicted Selenski of two counts of first-degree murder for the strangulation deaths of Michael J. Kerkowski and Tammy Fassett, whose bodies were found buried in the yard of his Kingston Township home in June 2003.

That same jury this week will be asked to determine whether the 41-year-old spends life in prison or is condemned to death. He’d be the sixth man from Luzerne County in modern history to be sent to death row should the jury agree he deserves to die.

If the jury decides Selenski should die for his crimes, it’s unlikely the penalty would be carried out — at least not anytime soon.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf on Friday imposed a moratorium on capital punishment in the state and vowed not to sign any new

3: Inmates executed in Pennsylvania since 1978 5: Men sentenced to death in Luzerne County Court since 1978 186: State inmates on death row 1938: The year when the state last executed an inmate from Luzerne County 1999: The year when the last inmate was executed in Pennsylvania SoURCE: Pennsylvania Department of Corrections

DEATH WARRANTS

mARK mORAN / THE CITIzENS’ vOICE

The penalty phase of Hugo Selenski’s trial will begin Tuesday, during which a jury will decide if the convicted killer should die.

oNliNE: A complete Hugo Selenski trial archive can be found at citizensvoice.com/selenski. death warrants until he receives a report from a legislative commission that has been studying the topic for about four years.

Even before Wolf ’s edict, the chances of being put to death in Pennsylvania were slim.

Since capital punishment was reinstated in the United States in 1976 and in Pennsylvania in 1978, only three Pennsylvania inmates have been put to death, with the last execution occurring in 1999.

Each of the men waived their appeal rights and asked to be killed. coNTiNUED oN PAgE A6

Death warrants signed by Pennsylvania governors since 1978*: Gov. Richard Thornburgh (R): 7 Gov. Robert Casey (D): 21 Acting Gov. Mark Singel (D): 1 Gov. Tom Ridge (R): 220 ** Gov. Ed Rendell (D): 119 Gov. Tom Corbett (R): 48 Gov. Tom Wolf (D) 0*** * Death penalty was reinstated in Pennsylvania in 1978. ** Three inmates who gave up their appeal rights were executed during Ridge’s term. *** Wolf imposed a moratorium on the death penalty on friday.

MORE INSIDE n The status of five killers from Luzerne County sentenced to death since 1978. Page A6 n A 1930s-era coal miner from Hanover Township was the last person from Luzerne County to be executed in state prison. Page A6 n A man who spent 16 years on the state’s death row for a crime he didn’t commit talks about his experience. Page A7 ADVE RTISE M E NT

Denmark on edge after shootings Pair of attacks leave 2 dead

By Jan M. Olsen and Karl Ritter associated press

COPENHAGEN, Denmark — A gunman opened fire on a Copenhagen cultural center, killing one man and wounding three police of ficers in what authorities called a terror attack against a free JANUS ENgEL / ASSOCIATED PRESS speech event featuring an ar tist who had caricaSecurity officers patrol the perimeter outside a venue after shots were fired during a free speech event in co- t u r e d t h e P r o p h e t Muhammad. penhagen on Saturday.

A second shooting near a synagogue hours later killed one and wounded two, and police said it wasn’t clear whether the incidents were linked.

After searching for the first gunman for hours, police reported the second s h oo t i n g in down town Copenhagen after midnight today. One person was shot in the head and two police officers were shot in the arms and legs, police said.

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A6 ||THE CITIZENS' VOICE | SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2015

Luzerne County death sentences Five killers convicted in Luzerne County have been sentenced to death since capital punishment was reinstated in Pennsylvania in 1978.

OsterhOut Free Library WiLkes-barre sunday independent COLLeCtiOn

this 1938 newspaper clipping tells about michael fugmann, who was condemned to death for a 1936 mail bombing spree that killed three people.

Coal miner last county resident put to death

By Bob Kalinowski staff writer

Michael Fugmann, a 1930s-era coal miner who lived on Oaklawn Avenue in Hanover Township, was the last person from Luzerne County to be executed in state prison, according to state records.

Fugmann was put to death on July 18, 1938, in the electric chair at State Correctional Institution at Rockview in Centre County, according to state records and newspaper accounts.

He was condemned to death following his conviction in Luzerne County Court for a 1936 mail bombing spree targeting coal union officials, according to newspaper accounts from the time.

Fugmann, according to court records, mailed six cigar boxes wrapped in paper to six different addresses on April 9, 1936. The boxes contained dynamite and were electrically wired so that they would explode when the lids were pried open.

Three people, including a child, were killed and two people were severely wounded. The crime would become known as the “Good Friday Bombings.”

While walking to the electric chair, Fugmann proclaimed his innocence, say-

george Banks, 72 Sentenced: 1983 on deatH roW Crime: Banks was convicted of murdering 13 people, including five of his own children, during a shooting spree in WilkesBarre and Jenkins Township in 1982.

Status: The state Supreme Court unanimously ruled in Sept. 2011 that Banks is not competent to be executed, effectively ending decades of legal battles over his fate. He had been granted three prior stays of execution, including one just a day before his scheduled execution in December 2004. Technically, he remains a death row inmate, but the Supreme Court court ruling means he can not be put to death, prison officials say.

Location: State Correctional Institution at Graterford, Montgomery County.

in Dorrance Township.

Status: The state Supreme Court overturned the conviction in November 2000 and the state Superior Court ordered that Strong be given a new trial. At the new trial in June 2011, a jury once again found Strong guilty of first-degree murder, but deadlocked on the death penalty. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Location: State Correctional Institution at Fayette, Fayette County.

tyrone moore, 60 off deatH roW Sentenced: 1988 Crime: Moore, of Wilkes-Barre, was convicted of shooting Nicholas Romanchick in 1982 during a holdup at the Forty Fort Animal Hospital.

Status: Luzerne County Judge Mark A. Ciavarella vacated the death sentence in September 2000 after hearing arguments that the attorneys James Lincoln Strong, 62 who represented Moore at trial failed Sentenced: 1984 to present evidence of the abuse off deatH roW Crime: Strong, a hitch- he suffered as a child. The State Supreme Court upheld Ciavarella’s hiker from Georgia, decision in 2004 and Moore remains was convicted in imprisoned on a life sentence with1983 of shooting out parole.

John Henry Strock Location: State Correctional Institution in a wooded area at Graterford, Montgomery County. just off Interstate 81

Brian Smith Sentenced: 1991 off deatH roW Crime: Smith of Hazleton was convicted in the beating death of a 5-monthold in 1991.

Status: In 1996, a judge vacated the death sentence on appeal after Smith’s lawyer failed to present evidence of his client’s mental illness.

Smith, was re-sentenced in 1998 to life without the possibility of parole.

Location: State Correctional Institution at Greene, Greene County. michael Bardo, 45 Sentenced: 1994 on deatH roW Crime: Bardo of Wilkes-Barre was convicted in 1993 of molesting and strangling his 3-year-old niece Joelle Donovan and dumping her body in Solomon Creek in South Wilkes-Barre.

Status: Bardo, who has been granted three stays of execution, filed a petition in the Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas claiming he was tried and sentenced in violation of his constitutional rights. The state Supreme Court recently ruled Bardo deserves a new sentencing hearing in Luzerne County Court.

Location: State Correctional Institution at Greene, Greene County.

Sources: Luzerne County district attorney’s office, Pennsylvania Department of Corrections

Banks, Bardo still on death row continued from page a1

OsterhOut Library WiLkes-barre sunday independent COLLeCtiOn

ing, “I have to pay with my life for a crime I didn’t commit.”

Fugmann, who worked at the Buttonwood Colliery, was a former artillery sergeant in the German Army during World War I. When the United States entered the war in April 1917, he deserted and eventually immigrated to the United States. cV bkalinowski@citizensvoice.com 570-821-2055, @cvbobkal

Almost all of them are housed at State Correctional Institution at Greene, a super maximum security prison in the southwest corner of the state, or at SCIGraterford, a sprawling facility in suburban Philadelphia that uses a restricted housing unit as a death row.

Since the last inmate was executed on July 6, 1999 — following a death warrant signed by then-Gov. Tom Ridge — there have been 236 execution orders delivered to the state Department of Corrections. Before Wolf took office, all of the cond e m n e d i n m at e s we re granted stays of execution, except four men, whose death warrants were just

Stays of execution Two death row inmates from Luzerne County — mass murderer George Banks and child killer Michael Bardo — were scheduled for execution three times, but were granted stays of execution.

Warrant signed 2/15/1996 3/9/1999 BanKS 10/5/2004

execution date 3/5/1996 4/20/1999 12/2/2004

Stay of execution 2/22/1996 3/26/1999 12/1/2004

6/18/1998 11/12/1998 Bardo 1/3/2008

7/16/1998 1/6/1999 2/28/2008

7/1/1008 12/25/1998 1/25/2008

signed last month by thenGov. Tom Corbett during his final days in office. Wolf granted a reprieve to one of the men on Friday, leaving only three with active warrants.

Of the five people sentenced to death in Luzerne County Court since capital

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punishment was reinstated, only two remain on death row: mass murderer George Banks and child killer Michael Bardo. Three others had their death sentences overturned.

Banks and Bardo have received execution dates three times while on death row, but were granted stays of execution three times.

One time — on Dec. 1, 2004, — Banks got a stay of execution just hours before he was to be put to death.

While he remains on death row, Banks, who killed 13 people during a 1982 shooting spree, can not be executed because he is mentally incompetent, the state Supreme Court unanimously ruled in September 2011.

Banks, 72, jailed at SCIGraterford, will remain on the state’s capital case list, but “will never be executed due to constitutional restrictions upon execution of the mentally incompetent,” said Susan McNaughton, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections.

Bardo, 45, convicted in 1993 of molesting and strangling his 3-year-old niece, was the last person in Luzerne County to be sentenced to death by a jury — and he is the last person

from Luzerne County, at this time, who has any chance of being put to death.

But he could be off death row soon, too.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court recently ruled that Bardo must receive a new sentencing hearing on a count of firstdegree murder because jurors in his trial should have been able to determine whether a personality disorder Bardo had was a mitigating factor in his crime.

The case is now coming back to Luzerne County Court.

Should Bardo’s sentence be reduced to life, death row could be cleared of anyone from Luzerne County.

Prosecutors think Selenski’s crimes make him a candidate to be added to the notorious list of villains in the state. He deserves the death penalty because he killed multiple victims, he tortured them and because of his lengthy criminal history, they say.

Testimony in the death penalty phase of Selenski’s case begins Tuesday morning. bkalinowski@citizensvoice.com

cV 570-821-2055, @cvbobkal

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WB_VOICE/PAGES [A07] | 02/14/15

21:57 | LOPERAIAN

THE CITIZENS' VOICE | SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2015 ||A7

Ex-inmate describes life on death row

By James Halpin

He was sentenced to death.

But he got a new trial after a judge ruled the lead prosecutor in the case had discriminated against blacks during jury selection by using his peremptory challenges to keep them off, according to the registry.

After the defense presented DNA evidence that the blood spatter on the jacket was from the victims and an unidentified man, a jury acquitted him of the charges on Nov. 15, 2005.

“I passed out,” Wilson said, recalling that day. “I heard nothing else.”

Wilson said he believes the shock he felt when he was sentenced to die was him receiving some form of protection, and that his collapse was the protection being removed after all those years.

“The weight was off of me,” Wilson said.

According to the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, Wilson walked out the back door of the county jail that night after being given 65 cents and a bus token. He currently has a civil lawsuit pending against the city of Philadelphia.

Wilson founded the Harold C. Wilson Foundation to help the wrongfully convicted and says he is grateful that he now has his freedom.

“I cherish life now,” Wilson said. “I know what it’s like to have nothing and want for everything. I am grateful today for the little things I have and my free life of rebuilding. The little things — the sun shining, being able to walk out the door and see birds and grass and fresh air, the ocean, the rain and snow.

You know how people complain about the weather because they look at the news? I don’t do none of that, because I know there is a place ...”

staff writer

As Harold C. Wilson stood in court, he felt a shock go through his body.

A judge described how much electricity would flow through Wilson’s body “until I was dead,” Wilson recalled in an interview Friday.

“I felt a shock all the way up to the top of my skull,” Wilson said.

The date was Oct. 4, 1989, and Wilson had just learned he would die for a triple murder he did not commit. For the next 16 years, Wilson, now 56, lived on death row at State Correctional Institution — Greene, dealing with mind games, nervous breakdowns and an inmate known as “Screaming Tiger.”

The prison currently houses 150 of the state’s 186 death row inmates, according to the state Department of Corrections. It could be Hugo Selenski’s new home if he is sentenced to die for torturing and murdering Michael Kerkowski and his girlfriend Tammy Fassett in a robbery over drug money.

The penalty phase of his trial is set to begin Tuesday.

Life in prison isn’t meant to be fun, but many privileges inmates in the general population have — access to jobs, education and social interaction — are mostly absent on death row.

Life there is bleak.

Inmates on death row are confined to their cells for 22 hours per day and are escorted by at least two guards whenever they leave to shower, visit family or exercise, DOC spokeswoman Susan McNaughton said. When they do go to the yard or the library, they are confined to “pens,” she said.

“Obviously it’s because of the security level of the offender that we’re dealing with,” McNaughton said.

“Everything is very secure

Matt RouRke / associated pRess

Harold Wilson, left, is shown at a 2007 rally against the death penalty on Independence Mall in Philadelphia.

Wilson was acquitted of a triple murder after a 2005 retrial. wherever they are.”

Their cells are about 7 by 13 feet and most services — including food, medical treatment and barbers — are brought to them, she said.

Death row inmates are allowed limited personal items, including some pictures and letters, and are allowed to buy a TV for their use, she said. They also must pay a monthly cable bill for a special provider that offers only selected channels, she said.

“When I first went on death row, I was totally in shock,” Wilson said, noting that life on death row is all about “care, custody and control.”

During his time on death row, Wilson said he didn’t drink coffee or buy a TV because “they are pacifiers.”

“They play mind games, and either you’re strong or you’re weak,” Wilson said.

“Anything they can use to control you, in my opinion, is wise to shun it.”

Wilson said he didn’t buy a radio until he had been on death row for about 10 years.

The days and nights were filled with the sounds of other inmates, including a man known as “Screaming Tiger” who would scream all night and bang on his steel bed, he said. Another would sing all day and night, using others’ names in his songs, he said.

“Kill Harold Wilson. Kill Harold Wilson now,” Wilson said, recalling the singing.

Shutting it all out was impossible, he said.

“The Supreme Court has already ruled that the death penalty is not cruel and it’s not unusual,” Wilson said.

“They need to spend some time in the units we were housed in.”

Wilson spent much of his time on legal research, reading health magazines and writing to pen pals, he said.

“You’re never going to be in the state of mind that you’re free, other than when you’re asleep,” Wilson said.

“In your dreams, you’re going to be free. When you read those letters and look at those pictures, it’s going to be a figment of your imagination. But it’s all right to hold

on to that on death row.”

Inmates are allowed visits, but they are shackled and chained as they view their loved ones through a window in a steel visiting booth, he said.

Otherwise, life on the row is a tedious routine: Eat, sleep, read, repeat.

“There were some times where I was so shaken up and broken down from the conditions of my confinement,” he said.

Wilson recalled how he would sometimes fold his mattress and sit on the floor of his cell, sipping an “herbal tea” made with cough drops as he read a newspaper or legal journal. Sometimes he would get through a paragraph and forget what he had been reading, he said.

“You look at your hands and your hands are shaking, but your mind is telling you that you are calm, cool and collected,” Wilson said. “It’s actually a nervous breakdown. So what I’d do, understanding that, I’d just shut down.”

Wilson focused on resting

and meditating to get him through his time, he said.

He had been convicted of a triple murder committed on April 10, 1988. Three people — Dorothy Sewell, 64; her nephew Tyrone Mason, 33; and Mason’s girlfriend Cynthia Goines Mills, 40 — had been hacked to death with a carpenter’s hatchet in Sewell’s Philadelphia home, according to the University of Michigan Law School’s National Registry of Exonerations.

Wilson, who had been staying at the home, was arrested after being seen with cuts on his hands and an envelope full of cash, according to the registry.

Wilson admitted he had used drugs in the house, but denied killing anyone.

After a jury convicted him of first-degree murder, Wilson testified during the penalty phase that he was high when he found the victims already dead and that he got blood on a jacket police found in the basement while trying to remove an ice pick from Mason’s chest, according to the registry.

CV jhalpin@citizensvoice.com

570-821-2058, @cvjimhalpin

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‘i grew up feeling broken’ With his father’s killer locked up for life, Conner Kerkowski shares his tale of grief and what he would have told jurors. Page 4

Warren ruda / The CiTizens’ VoiCe

INSET: Connor Kerkowski and his grandmother Geraldine Kerkowski share a moment while he reads his statement. © 2014 the Citizens’ voice

Breaking news, Blogs, videos & more at citizensvoice.com Like the Citizens’ voiCe on faCebook and foLLow @CitizensvoiCe on twitter

WB_VOICE - DLY - 1 - 02/21/15

WB_VOICE/PAGES [T01] | 02/20/15

21:54 | EDWARDSMIC

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2015

4 THE CITIZENS' VOICE

Life after loss Not knowing who his father was weighs heavily on Connor Kerkowski

By James Halpin Staff Writer LEHMAN TWP. — From a very young age, the Kerkowski boys learned monsters were real.

They were only 6 and 2 years old the day their father, Michael J. Kerkowski, didn’t pick them up from day care.

They didn’t understand why their father COveR missed Connor StORy Kerkowski’s third birthday party or why their grandparents began raising them.

All Connor knew in his younger days was that his father, Michael J. Kerkowski, was on vacation in a better place.

Visiting with friends and seeing their fathers, he wondered, “Why shouldn’t I have that? Why am I not allowed to have a father?”

He learned the truth when he was about 6 or 7.

His father hadn’t abandoned him.

He wasn’t on vacation.

He had encountered a real life “monster.”

“I grew up feeling broken,” Connor said Friday in an interview at his grandmother’s house. “That’s how it always has been.”

Kerkowski and his girlfriend Tammy Fassett, both 37, had been bound with flex ties at Kerkowski’s house in Hunlock Creek on May 3, 2002

by Hugo Selenski, 41, and Paul Weakley, 45. Kerkowski was beaten with a rolling pin and choked with flex ties in a robbery for money he made illegally selling prescription painkillers.

Both were then strangled with flex ties. Their bodies were found in a shallow grave in Selenski’s backyard on June 5, 2003.

In the following months, the “monster” came at the Kerkowskis repeatedly seeking money, claiming he was helping with Kerkowski’s legal defense. He pretended to call their dead son on the phone, leading them on and

Warren ruda / The CiTizenS’ VoiCe

Connor Kerkowski, sitting with his grandmother, Geraldine Kerkowski, was 2 years old when his father, Michael J. Kerkowski, was murdered.

CourTeSy of Connor KerKoWSKi

Michael J. Kerkowski poses for a family photo with his sons, Tyler, left, and Connor, and his parents, Michael S. and Geraldine Kerkowski. preying on their grief, the boys’ grandmother, Geraldine Kerkowski said.

“He was bleeding us, and he knew he had us right where he wanted us,” she said. “He’s evil.”

Selenski was found guilty last week of two counts of first-degree murder, along with other charges, and a jury on Wednesday spared him a death sentence. Weakley had previously pleaded guilty to murder and is serv-

WB_VOICE - DLY - 4 - 02/21/15

ing a life sentence.

In a statement prepared to be read in court during Selenski’s penalty phase, Michael J. Kerkowski’s other son, Tyler Kerkowski, wrote that he knows he would have been best friends with his father, who shared a love of the outdoors with him.

Geraldine Kerkowski said Tyler, now 18, can remember riding all-terrain vehicles, sitting on the lawn mower, walking in the woods and fishing

with his father, she said.

“Michael not only adored his sons,” she said. “He worshipped these kids. He loved them so much.”

Connor, however, was only 2 years old and remembers nothing.

“I feel like I could remember him,” Connor said. “I feel like I have pictures and moments. There’s videos and I feel like I could be there.”

Connor, now a 15-year-old sophomore at Dallas High School, said he likes the sciences and thinks he would have had a lot in common with his father, a pharmacist.

The hardest part is not knowing who his father was, he said. He hears the stories about his father, and looks at the pictures, but can’t remember any interaction he had with his father.

“You can make a lifetime full of memories, but I didn’t even get to have one of them,” Connor said. “I was raised knowing what grief was.”

After the disappearance, Geraldine Kerkowski got legal custody of the boys. They formed a close bond with their grandfather, Michael S. Kerkowski, she said. But he died of a heart attack in 2006, once more leaving the children without a father figure in their lives.

See kerkowski, page 12

WB_VOICE/PAGES [T04] | 02/20/15

IN CONNOR’S WORDS Michael KerKowsKi’s sons each wrote statements they planned to read in court during the penalty phase of Hugo Selenski’s double murder trial, but prosecutors opted not to call family members to testify in an attempt to keep emotion out of the verdict. The Kerkowski family has agreed to allow The Citizens’ Voice to publish the statements they wanted the jury to hear before deciding whether to give Selenski life in prison or death for murdering their father.

For whom it may concern, My father, Michael Jason Kerkowski, was supposed to be at Little People to pick me and my brother up on the same day he was brutally and innocently murdered. He never showed up, which wasn’t like him. Just one day he didn’t. That one day was all it took. He was also supposed to be there for my third birthday a few days later. He wasn’t.

I noticed as I got older that something was wrong, and wondered why I never had what all the other kids had. A father. Pieces of my life were slowly torn away from the very beginning, starting off with growing up without a father. I cannot fathom the words I need to write or speak to describe how hard it is to grow up with a very broken life without the father that is supposed to watch me graduate from high school and college, and watch me accomplish great things in life. But what is unbelievably unbearable to accept is that he will never be there for any of it. Or any other significant event to come about in my future as a three-year-old infant who was raised without a father.

It has been a long thirteen years since the murder of my father and his girlfriend Tammy Fassett. I grew up thinking I didn’t have a father, thinking it was normal for him to not be around. My father may have not been the most innocent man to walk this Earth, but I know that he did not deserve what he had gotten. I deserved to be able to know what he looked like in person, and to know how his voice sounded when he spoke.

This deranged man, Hugo Selenski, took it all away without even thinking twice about how it would affect his family and the people that loved him dearly. I don’t feel sorry for him. I don’t really think people can change. At the end of the day you are who you are, and it’s probably who you’ve always been, and if this man were given the opportunity to manipulate another father or mother or anyone in the world, he would do it again. He is the man who tore my family apart and made us live with a gaping wound never to be healed.

Justice will be served, on Earth or in hell. Either way, I wish nothing but the worst for Hugo Selenski. I hope he will never live to see a day where happiness is granted. I hope he will carry the murders of my father and Tammy Fassett around with him forever. If there is a God, and if there is a place for people who have done such deceitful, horrendous things, I hope it becomes Hugo Selenski’s home very soon. He is a waste of the air we breathe, and a waste of a life that doesn’t deserve to be lived. If this man were to be allowed the time of day to be sentenced to death, maybe justice will be prevailed after all.

But either way, there is no winner. I will still never have a father for the rest of my existence, and my grandmother will never have her son back, and my brother will never get to experience hunting and outdoors with our father. Nothing will ever be OK. Why should the man who took two innocent lives be allowed to live when my father and Tammy Fassett will never live another day because of Hugo Selenski’s planned actions of murder?

Do not be fooled by this man’s smirk, comments or story for that matter. He is nothing but a manipulative, murderous human being who will never show any type of remorse. He cannot be changed, nor will he ever change. I will never live to be at peace with not having a father, but if this man could be put to death, maybe my family and any other loved ones who lost these two wonderful people could be at peace. All I can pray and hope is that justice will be served. Dad, if you’re listening, know that I love you with all my heart. I’m so sorry this had to happen.

— Connor kerkowski

22:31 | EDWARDSMIC

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2015

12 THE CITIZENS' VOICE

homecoming king or becoming a Dallas Mountaineer. And will never be able to see events to come later in my life such as Michael KerKowsKi’s sons each wrote was and I low it felt growing up graduating school and so on. statements they planned to read without my father. Without the in court during the penalty phase loving, caring, companionship of The loss of my father will of Hugo Selenski’s double forever be engraved into my my devoted father. murder trial, but prosecutors I know my father and I would life’s story. I was never even opted not to call family members have been best friends. My love able to talk to him. I never got to testify in an attempt to keep to know all the great things that for the great outdoors would emotion out of the verdict. The could have been because my have been a common love Kerkowski family has agreed to father was taken away from me, that we would have shared. I allow The Citizens’ Voice to pubsuffered things that no one in was deprived from all the great lish the statements they wanted memories that could have been this world should ever suffer. the jury to hear before deciding created with him in the outdoors. My family and I have suffered whether to give Selenski life in a tragedy that no one should I was never able to have fatherprison or death for murdering son bonding time. He was never over suffer. No one will ever their father. know how empty it makes able to share his interests with one feel. No one will ever be me such as music or movies.

Hello ladies and gentlemen able to understand how I feel.

Which I’m sure we would of the jury, my name is Tyler I was denied of even knowing have shared a lot of things in Kerkowski. I am the son of the my father because he was common. late Michael Kerkowski. I would robbed of his life. If I could have He was also never able to see like to take a few minutes to anything, all I want is justice. some of the biggest moments of tell you how I was affected by — Tyler Kerkowski my life. Such as me becoming the loss of my father. How it

IN TYLER’S WORDS

Warren ruda / The CiTizens’ VoiCe

Connor Kerkowski wipes away a tear as he reads the statement he would have read to the jury during the penalty phase of Hugo Selenski’s murder trial. His grandmother, Geraldine Kerkowski, comforts him.

Kerkowski: A step toward peace, closure from page 4 “It was like a double shock for these kids,” Geraldine Kerkowski said. “They lost their father, they lost their grandfather, who they loved and who loved them.”

For 13 years, they waited for justice.

Lawyers came and went.

Witnesses died.

By the time the longanticipated trial began last month, the case had been pending for nearly all of Connor’s time on Earth.

“For 13 years, I was pushing it under, trying to forget, trying to live a normal life,” Geraldine Kerkowski said.

“When this came up and all this came out, it was like tearing the scabs of f wounds. It started all over again.”

The testimony was difficult. Weakley took the stand and described the torture and murder in graphic detail. Geraldine Kerkowski said the family had been warned not to attend.

She was in bed for days afterward.

“I knew that my son was strangled, but I never, never knew how horrendously he was tortured,” she said.

“That just broke me up.”

Connor said he was glad Weakley had the courage to

testify. The trial was difficult, he said, but it was a step toward peace and closure.

“I grew up not having closure of anything,” Connor said. “This is the first time we’ve ever experienced it.”

During the trial, defense attor neys claimed their father had in fact planned to pick up and leave, fleeing to avoid going to prison for selling the pills.

Connor said that “breaks my heart.”

Geraldine Kerkowski said her son had resigned himself to taking time off work and doing what he needed to do. There is no chance he planned to flee, she said.

“He would never leave the boys,” Geraldine Kerkowski said. “Never, ever, ever. He would never just pick up and run away.”

The family had hoped Selenski would get the death penalty.

“The loss of my father will forever be engraved into my life’s story,” Tyler wrote in his statement. “I was never even able to talk to him. I never got to know all the great things that could have been because my father was taken away from me, suffered things that no one in this world should

WB_VOICE - DLY - 12 - 02/21/15

ever suffer. My family and I have suffered a tragedy that no one should ever suffer.

No one will ever know how empty it makes one feel.”

But the jury never heard those words. The prosecution decided not to call family members to the stand to avoid injecting emotion into the decision.

The family is OK with Selenski’s life sentence.

“He deserves to suffer,” Connor said. “If he was put to death, he wouldn’t have to think about it. He would be at peace, and he doesn’t deserve that.”

In an interview Thursday with The Citizens’ Voice, Selenski maintained his innocence and said he did not know how five bodies found themselves buried in his backyard.

“That really made me upset how he could still, even after being convicted, plead his innocence and plead that he doesn’t know how the bodies got there,” Connor said. “It doesn’t make sense. I don’t know how a human being could be so awful and still, after doing something like that, not even have any remorse.” jhalpin@citizensvoice.com 570-821-2058, @cvjimhalpin

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commoNWEAlTH vS. HUgo SElENSki: THE iNSiDE SToRY

States seek alternatives for highway, bridge funding

By David A. Lieb associated press

THE CITIzENS’ VOICE FILE

State police converge at Hugo Selenski’s home on mount olivet Road in kingston Township on June 6, 2003.

JOURNEY TO

JUSTICE

Investigator reveals intimate details of Selenski case t’s June 3, 2003. Luzerne County Detective Lt. Gary Capitano is leaving a meeting with an informant in a robbery case.

Then, he hears five words that will change his career.

“Cap. There’s more. Sit down,” the informant’s attorney blurts out.

His client, Paul Weakley, has more to say.

“Now that I gave you that, I have to give you everything,” Weakley says.

“You know that pharmacist that’s missing? He didn’t take off. Hugo Selenski murdered him and his girlfriend. I know it for a fact. I’ll take you to the bodies.”

Weakley goes on to tell investigators that Selenski — a friend since their days in federal prison — was “out of control” and might have killed a dozen people. Just a week earlier, Selenski killed two drug dealers, burned their bodies and put their charred bones in trash bags outside

By Kyle Wind staff writer

his home in Kingston Township.

Capitano’s pursuit of a routine robbery now has him on the trail of a possible mass murderer.

On June 5, 2003 — two days after Weakley’s statement to Capitano — an army of law enforcement officers descends on Selenski’s property on Mount Olivet Road, where they find the remains of at least five people.

For the next 12 years, the case against Selenski dominates Capitano’s career, with twists and turns never expected — Selenski’s prison escape, a fan club of admirers cheering him on, his 2006 acquittal on murder charges and endless appeals. coNTiNUED oN pAgE A5

RICK BOWMER / ASSOCIATED PRESS

A hole in the pavement is seen along a street in Salt lake city on Friday.

mated at up to $30 per car.

As legislatures convene across the country, lawmakers and governors are confronting similar realities in their own states: how to address an aging network of roads, highways and bridges during an era in which federal money for such projects has remained stagnant or declined. coNTiNUED oN pAgE A7

Pa. roads suffered when bridge issues addressed

By Bob Kalinowski // staff writer

I

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Touted as one of the first interstate highways, a 200-mile span of Interstate 70 between suburban St. Louis and Kansas City stands as a prime example of the challenges facing the nation’s roads.

Built in the 1950s and ‘60s with a 20-year-life expectancy, the four-lane highway is crumbling beneath its surface and clogged with traffic as it carries more than 30,000 vehicles a day on many of its rural stretches, requiring more frequent repaving. The cost to rebuild and widen it is estimated at $2 billion to $4 billion — as much as five times the projected yearly construction and maintenance budget of Missouri’s transportation department.

And there is no easy way to pay for it. The state fuel tax hasn’t risen in about 20 years, and voters defeated a threequarters of a cent sales tax for transportation. Gov. Jay Nixon has since floated the idea of hiking the gasoline tax and reviving a previously failed plan to turn I-70’s reconstruction over to a private entity that could charge tolls esti-

MARK MORAN / THE CITIzENS’ VOICE

luzerne county Detective lt. gary capitano testified during Hugo Selenski’s double murder on Feb. 6.

Nearly a third of Northeastern Pennsylvania’s roads are in bad shape, and it will take the state Department of Transportation years to fix them.

Buoyed with about $400 million more a year from gas tax and fee hikes in 1997, PennDOT was repairing the state’s crumbling road network gradually until 2008, when the agency diverted money to address a crisis — the state’s deteriorating bridges.

The result: the state’s structurally-deficient bridge count dropped from 6,034 to 4,018 now, but Pennsylvania’s roads rapidly deteriorated.

By 2013, five years of funneling money into the bridge system more than undid all the progress PennDOT made on roads in six Northeastern Pennsylvania counties over t h e p r i o r f iv e ye a r s , PennDOT records show.

In 2003, the agency rated 25 percent of the roads in Northeastern Pennsylvania’s District 4 in poor condition — the worst rating on its roughness scale that includes excellent, good and fair. By 2007, inspectors rated 17 percent of roads in Lackawanna, Luzerne, Pike, Susquehanna, Wayne and Wyoming counties as poor. coNTiNUED oN pAgE A7

ADVE RTISE M E NT

Bringing in more money, even after MOM’S DEAL OF THE DAY! the campaign for governor is over

By Eric Holmberg publicsource

When the campaign for governor ends, the contributions and expenses don’t. As strange as it might sound, candidates can receive money after the election and a few people actually continue to give until Dec. 31.

Newly elected Gov. Tom Wolf raised $284,019 in contributions from 131 people and committees after the election. Former Gov. Tom Corbett received 96 contributions for $39,196 after he lost.

Thelargestsinglecontributionafterthe election wasa$50,000contributiontoWolf from the Comcast Corporation & NBC

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Before the election, Comcast gave more than $100,000 to Corbett and then switched its support after Wolf won.

John Demming, executive director for Comcast’sfinancialcommunications,said Comcast supported the current governor in both cases, but could not elaborate further on Comcast’s political strategy.

Wolf also received $50,000 total from two employees at Philadelphia law firm Berger&MontagueonDec.31.Employees at the firm gave Wolf a total of $216,000. coNTiNUED oN pAgE A6

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ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE

authorities search Hugo Selenski’s Kingston township property, where two sets of remains had been found in June 2003 in shallow graves.

Huge police operation led to Selenski’s arrest in 2003 Continued from page a1

otHer Key playerS

The long pursuit to bring Selenski to justice finally ended when a jury convicted him of first-degree murder for the strangulation deaths of the pharmacist, Michael J. Kerkowski, and his girlfriend, Tammy Fassett, whose bodies were found buried in Selenski’s yard. The jury determined last week that Selenski should spend life in prison.

“As a detective, it was the case of a lifetime,” Capitano said of the biggest case in his 27 years with the district attorney’s office.

With a long-imposed gag order finally lifted, Capitano spoke at length with The Citizens’ Voice, offering a detailed account of what led him to Selenski, the grave containing two murder victims and garbage bags filled with the bones of at least three people.

“That’s the minimum number of bodies,” Capitano said. “You can’t imagine the amount of bones we have.”

n assistant district attorney Jarrett ferentino: promise kept As a rookie, a 28-year-old Ferentino was appointed to the prosecution team for the Kerkowski and Fassett murders in March 2006 after Selenski’s first acquittal. He asked for the assignment and promised not to let his boss down.

He made another vow to the victims’ families.

“I made a commitment to them to see this case through. Here we sit nine years later,” Ferentino said.

“I promised them I would never leave the case.”

And, he never did.

Ferentino was the lone prosecutor to remain on the case since March 2006, having led the team that convicted Selenski of double murder at his recent trial. n former da Jackie musto Carroll: don’t say “Hugo” During Musto Carroll’s tenure, she had a rule around the district attorney’s office when referring to a murder defendant who was known in headlines by his first name alone.

“I wouldn’t allow anyone to call him Hugo,” Musto Carroll said. “When I heard someone call him Hugo, I said, ‘He’s not your friend. He’s a defendant charged with heinous crimes.’”

A key breakthrough in the case occurred on Musto Carroll’s watch: Selenski’s codefendant Paul Weakley pleaded guilty in federal court to the murders of Kerkowski and Fassett and agreed to testify against Selenski to avoid the death penalty.

“He wanted to live in the general population and not on death row,” Musto Carroll said.

Break in the case

Capitano had never heard of Hugo Selenski before March 2003, when a restaurant owner friend asked him to look into an invasion and robbery at an employee’s home in Kingston Township. The employee told Capitano two armed men in ski masks barged into her home, knocked her to the ground and stole a number of items. Capitano asked the woman for her top suspects. She fingered Selenski, Weakley and their friend, Patrick Russin.

Capitano tried to contact Selenski first, but he didn’t return calls and never answered his door. A “cooperating witness” later convinced Selenski to be interviewed on May 27, 2003.

Selenski told Capitano he knew the victim, but had nothing to do with the crime.

“I knew the guy was lying,” Capitano said. “Total denial. Very cocky.”

Capitano tried Russin next, but he declined an interview.

Soon, Capitano set his sights on Weakley, a career criminal fresh out of federal prison. During a meeting with Weakley and his attorney on June 3, 2003, Capitano pretended he had enough evidence to convict Weakley, telling him, “I’m going to put you away for life.”

“Basically it was BS, because I had nothing on the guy,” Capitano recalled.

Weakley denied being involved, but said he knew who was: Selenski and Russin. They had dropped off some of the woman’s belongings at his house, he said. Weakley had a rock-solid alibi; he was wearing an electronic ankle bracelet while on federal probation and records showed he was home at the time of the robbery.

“Case closed,” Capitano thought.

Just as he was leaving, Capitano heard the words that would launch the Selenski murder probe: “Cap. There’s more. Sit down,” Weakley’s attorney, Tom Cometa said.

Weakley would go on to promise Capitano and state police homicide investigators they’d find the bodies of Kerkowski and Fassett on Selenski’s property. The next day — June 4, 2003 — after they took Weakley for a ride past Selenski’s home, he volunteered more information.

“Look it, you guys seem like nice guys. I’m not supposed to tell you about the other murders. But Selen-

n first assistant da Sam Sanguedolce: Conviction on second try Sanguedolce, who shared lead prosecutor duties in Selenski’s recent trial, was a young lawyer in the district attorney’s office during the search of Selenski’s property on June 5, 2003. He walked into a mostly empty office and asked where everyone was.

“It’s hush, hush. No one is allowed to know,” a secretary said.

His response: “They better not come to me a year from now and ask me to read 1,000 pages and try the case when they didn’t invite me to the scene.” The case would be larger than that and Sanguedolce did get assigned to the first Selenski trial, which ended in acquittal on homicide charges due to what Sanguedolce calls a “legal technicality.” In 2012, Sanguedolce asked to be on the team for the second case. He said it was “gratifying” to help finally convict Selenski of murder.

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE

State police escort Hugo Selenski from his court appearance oct.

6, 2003, in Kingston, after he was charged with the shotgun slayings of frank James and adeiye Keiler. He was later acquitted of those murders. ski shot two black drug dealers about a week ago and he burned them and shoveled their bones in garbage bags,” Weakley told Capitano. “And you guys better move on this warrant because Thursday is garbage day in Kingston Township.”

It was Wednesday night.

under the ruse that the pharmacist was in hiding to avoid sentencing for illegally selling prescription painkillers and needed money to mount a new defense.

Selenski was jailed in the Luzerne County Correctional Facility.

At this point, Weakley had only admitted to helping Selenski bury Search and discovery the bodies of Kerkowski and Fassett, Capitano and state police quietly Capitano says. obtained a search warrant for Selenski’s property the morning of Thurs- Charges and trials — and an escape day, June 5, 2003. Luzerne County Prosecutors charged Selenski with Judge Patrick Toole signed it at his the shotgun slayings of James and home to prevent anyone from find- Keiler on Oct. 6, 2003. Selenski’s assoing out about the huge police opera- ciate, Patrick Russin, had agreed to tion in the works. plead guilty to being an accomplice to Surveillance was set up around the murders and would testify the property and authorities spotted against Selenski. three heavy-duty garbage bags at the Four days later, Selenski escaped end of the driveway. After garbage from the county prison’s maximum collectors took the bags, state police security ward on the seventh floor, stopped the hauler down the road using bedsheets knotted together. and seized them. They were filled Capitano was at his Bradford County with human bones. property — on a hunting trip — when Investigators would unearth the he got the news. decomposed bodies of Kerkowski “I think I made it from Wyalusing and Fassett, who were strangled to to Dallas in 30 minutes,” Capitano death with flex ties. They concluded said. “I was concerned about my famthe bags contained at least three sets ily.” of human remains, judging by the Selenski eventually surrendered a presence of three left mandibles — few days later, but the escape added to lower jaw bones. Authorities the public interest in his case. believed two sets of bones belonged After a high-profile trial in March to drug dealers Frank James, 29, and 2006 that attracted national news covAdeiye Keiler, 22, who they say were erage, a jury cleared Selenski of lured to the property for a drug deal, homicide charges for the deaths of then slain by Selenski. No one could James and Keiler. be sure because Selenski burned the “It was a tough loss,” Capitano bodies in a pit and the DNA was lost, said. “It still bothers me and I’ll never prosecutors have said. forget it.”

The day of the search, Selenski At the time, Capitano was upset was arrested on allegations he and agitated, but he couldn’t dwell on robbed Kerkowski’s father of $40,000 it. He was tasked with charging Selat gunpoint in 2002. Police say Selen- enski with a second set of homicide ski had previously extorted the charges for the deaths of Kerkowski Kerkowski family out of $60,000 and Fassett. As he prepared to drive

n Case manager michelle giza: there from day 1 Giza has worked on the Selenski case since the very beginning.

“I helped seal the search warrants the first day,” she recalled. “It was very secretive. They had to go to Judge Toole’s house.”

Giza has assisted prosecutors on the case ever since, doing what Sanguedolce described as “the trench work.” She knew where every document and report was when a prosecutor needed to view it during the trial and never let them down once, he said.

“I don’t think we could have tried this case without her,” Sanguedolce said.

Selenski’s case has been part of Giza’s life for 12 years. Now what?

“I don’t want to say it’s time to move on, but it’s time to move on.” to the state police barracks for Selenski’s processing, his car door opened.

“Who jumps in the car, but this young ADA, Jarrett Ferentino,” Capitano said. “I don’t even think I know his name at this point. He says, ‘Detective Capitano, I promise you I will work my ass off for justice in this case.’ I was like, ‘Shut up kid.’ And just kept driving.” They have worked on the case together ever since.

Capitano said he became “more determined” to convict Selenski after the first trial.

“I had a chip on my shoulder, no doubt about it.”

Capitano said he was eventually able to get the truth out of Weakley that he and Selenski killed Kerkowski and Fassett. Weakley pleaded guilty in federal court, agreeing to serve life in prison. He was a key witness against Selenski at the recent trial, detailing for the jury how they killed the couple.

After 12 years, Capitano had his man.

“I’m slowly grasping that we got the son of a bitch,” he said.

CV bkalinowski@citizensvoice.com 570-821-2055, @cvbobkal

‘That’s the minimum number of bodies. You can’t imagine the amount of bones

ThE CITIzEnS’ VOICE FILE

Hugo Selenski escaped from the luzerne County Correcwe have.’ tional facility in october 2003 Gary Capitano by using bedsheets knotted Luzerne County Detective Lt. together.