Ex-con with bones in yard denies murders

[Janice]

http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/07/27/remai ... index.html


Ex-con with bones in yard denies murders
Hugo Selenksi was acquitted in March of killing drug dealers


ALLENTOWN, Pennsylvania (AP) -- An ex-con who lived on property where authorities found as many as 12 sets of human remains pleaded not guilty Thursday to killing a pharmacist and the man's girlfriend.

Prosecutors said they planned to seek the death penalty against Hugo Selenski, 32.

Police unearthed the bodies of Michael Kerkowski, a pharmacist linked to drug dealing, and Tammy Lynn Fassett three years ago on Selenski's property north of Wilkes-Barre.

Court documents said Selenski strangled Kerkowski and Fassett, both 37, at Kerkowski's home in May 2002, and later stole tens of thousands of dollars that Kerkowski had given to his father for safekeeping.

Kerkowski, who once called Selenski his best friend, had pleaded guilty to selling more than 330,000 doses of painkillers without prescriptions and was awaiting sentencing when he and Fassett disappeared.

Police were led to Selenski's property by Paul Weakley, who said he helped Selenski move Kerkowski's and Fassett's bodies from their original burial place behind a school.

Weakley told police that Selenski was involved in a dozen homicides. Authorities found between five and 12 sets of remains on the property; only four have been publicly identified.

Weakly also has been charged with murder and could face a death sentence if convicted.

Selenski, who served nearly seven years in prison for a 1994 bank robbery, was acquitted in March of killing two suspected drug dealers but convicted of abuse of a corpse. He is serving a four-year term.