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29 March 2024

Man strangles pharmacist and his girlfriend

They were all declared dead at the scene. (Shutterstock)

Published
By AP

A jury on Wednesday convicted a man of strangling a pharmacist and the pharmacist's girlfriend, whose bodies were found in his yard, as part of a plot to rob the pharmacist of the proceeds of an illegal drug ring. It was a victory for prosecutors who had failed to put him away on two earlier homicide charges.

Hugo Selenski, who showed no emotion as the jury verdict was read, faces a potential death sentence after a jury concluded he killed Michael Kerkowski and Tammy Fassett in 2002 and buried their bodies behind his house.

Prosecutors said Selenski, 41, and a co-conspirator brutally beat Kerkowski to compel him to reveal the location of tens of thousands of dollars he kept in his house, then used flex ties to strangle the pharmacist and Fassett.

Authorities found their decomposing bodies on Selenski's property about a year later, along with at least three other sets of human remains.

The jury convicted Selenski of first-degree murder, robbery and other offenses and must now decide whether to send Selenski to death row or give him life in prison without parole. The jury reached its verdict after deliberating more than 11 hours over two days.

Selenski has been a familiar face in northeastern Pennsylvania since his 2003 arrest on charges that he killed a pair of reputed drug dealers whose charred remains were also found on the property north of Wilkes-Barre.

In 2006, a jury acquitted him of one homicide and deadlocked on another, but convicted him of abusing the men's corpses. After the verdict, authorities immediately charged him with killing Kerkowski and Fassett.

Kerkowski, 37, a pharmacist from Hunlock Creek, had pleaded guilty to running a prescription drug ring that netted at least $800,000 and was about to be sentenced when he and Fassett, also 37, were reported missing in May 2002.

Selenski saw an opportunity to scam Kerkowski, getting the pharmacist to give him tens of thousands of dollars for legal work he never performed, prosecutors alleged.

But Selenski quickly burned through all the money, and needed another $10,000 to cover a check that his girlfriend, Christina Strom, had written to purchase a house, giving him a motive to rob and kill Kerkowski before the pharmacist headed to prison on the drug charges, prosecutors said.

The defense contended Selenski was framed by another man, Paul Weakley, who led police to Selenski's yard in June 2003. Weakley later pleaded guilty in federal court, testified against Selenski to avoid the death penalty, and could ask for a reduction of his life prison sentence because of his cooperation.

Weakley, who met Selenski in prison in the 1990s, told jurors how he plotted with Selenski to kill Kerkowski, then helped him carry out the crimes and bury the bodies.

He described how he and Selenski bound the victims and covered their eyes with duct tape. Weakley said Kerkowski -- who was beaten with a rolling pin -- told them where to find his hidden bags of cash. He said Fassett was killed simply because she was with Kerkowski when they showed up at the pharmacist's house.

After the killings, Selenski stole tens of thousands more that Kerkowski had given to his father for safekeeping, at one point pointing a gun at the father and threatening him, according to other witnesses.

Selenski, who is already serving decades in prison for an unrelated robbery, escaped from prison in 2003 using a rope fashioned from bedsheets and spent three days on the run before turning himself in.

The fifth body discovered on his property was never publicly identified.

(Image via Shutterstock)