New trial rejected for killer convicted with bodies in Pa. yard

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. (AP) — A panel of judges has rejected an appeal for a new trial for a man convicted in the 2002 strangulation deaths of a pharmacist and his girlfriend.

Hugo Selenski was sentenced to life without parole plus 56 to 120 years in the slayings of Michael Kerkowski and Tammy Lynn Fassett.

The judges on Thursday upheld a decision that Selenski received a fair trial. They rejected Selenski’s claims, including that prosecutors withheld evidence about a key witness and that his defense attorney was wrongly removed.

Prosecutors said he and a co-conspirator beat Kerkowski to compel him to reveal the location of tens of thousands of dollars.

Prosecutors say he then strangled Kerkowski and Fassett using flex ties. Authorities later found their decomposing bodies on property where Selenski lived, along with several other sets of human remains.