Mom to murderer: You're going straight to hell

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. (AP) — A man convicted of strangling a pharmacist and his girlfriend was sentenced today to life in prison without parole, after the mother of one of the victims called him a "useless waste of space and air" and declared he's "going straight to hell."

Hugo Selenski, 41, was convicted last month of two counts of first-degree murder for killing Michael Kerkowski and Tammy Fassett in 2002 as part of a robbery plot. Their bodies were among at least five sets of human remains found in Selenski's yard north of Wilkes-Barre, in 2003.

The gruesome discovery sparked a 12-year journey through the justice system that included a prison escape and a 2006 trial in which Selenski beat two other homicide charges.

Kerkowski's mother, Geraldine Kerkowski, read from a prepared statement at the sentencing but frequently looked Selenski in the eye as she expressed contempt and hatred for her son's killer.

"I know I can be satisfied knowing you will spend eternity suffering in hell, because there is going to be an eye for an eye," said Kerkowski, 71. "Hugo, you know you will be right where you will belong, in hell with Satan because you are the devil in every sense of the word."