CNN sent a reporting team and a camera crew to the Times Leader newsroom Tuesday night to get the skinny on the Hugo Selenski double murder trial. City Editor Brian Malina and courts reporter Dave Weiss, who has covered the Selenki saga from the get-go, were interviewed about the accused, the public interest in the case, and our coverage of the story. The cable news network is going to remain in town at least for the opening arguments. We expect the segment that includes a look at our coverage to air later this week, probably Thursday. Keep looking at this site and I’ll let you know when I get a schedule from CNN.

Twelve jurors have been selected for the capital murder trial of Hugo Selenski. It took five days and 87 potential jurors before Assistant District Attorney Jim McMonagle and lead defense attorney Demetrius Fannick filled the juror box.

Juror No. 1 is a deliveryman and has four children.
Juror No. 2 is a married woman and a nurse.
Juror No. 3 is a married woman and a teacher.
Juror No. 4 is a married man and a telephone technician.
Juror No. 5 is a married man and a teacher.
Juror No. 6 is a married man and a chef.
Juror No. 7 is a woman and a teacher
Juror No. 8 is a single man, and an information technologies specialist.
Juror No. 9 is a married man and a warehouse worker
Juror No. 10 is a divorced man and factory worker/freelance motorsports journalist
Juror No. 11 is a single man and a patient-services coordinator for a local hospital
Juror No. 12 is a married woman and a homemaker

2002
Feb. 28: A Wyoming County jury takes only 35 minutes to find the pharmacist, Michael Kerkowski guilty of selling painkillers without a prescription.

April 25: Kerkowski pleads no contest to several felony charges involving the illegal sale of painkilling prescription drugs and insurance fraud. Charges of involuntary manslaughter in connection with Mekuta’s death are again dismissed.

May 14: Kerkowski misses his sentencing hearing and is considered a fugitive from justice. Also missing is his girlfriend, Tammy Lynn Fassett.

2003

June 5: Two bodies are found in a shallow grave on the Kingston Township, Luzerne County, property where Hugo Marcus Selenski lives. Selenski is arrested on charges of robbery, aggravated assault, making terroristic threats and recklessly endangering another person, stemming from an incident in fall 2002 during which he allegedly robbed Kerkowski’s father of $40,000.

June 8: Investigators confirm the bodies are those of Kerkowski and Fassett.

June 9: Officials unearth more human remains at the site.

July 3: Selenski is ordered to stand trial on robbery and aggravated assault charges.

July 31: Luzerne County District Attorney David Lupas officially indicates Selenski is a suspect in the murders of five people whose remains were found on the Kingston Township property.

Sept. 17: Investigators confirm the identity of two more sets of remains discovered on Selenski’s property. They are Frank James, 29, of New York City and Adeiye Ossasis Keiler, 23, of Kingston. An informant claims that Selenski killed both men, alleged drug dealers, on May 14.

Oct. 6: Selenski is charged with two counts of homicide, criminal conspiracy, robbery and the abuse of a corpse in the deaths of James and Keiler.

Oct. 10: Selenski escapes from the maximum security ward of the Luzerne County Correctional Facility at about 9:40 p.m. Using bedsheets, he climbs down seven stories and then uses a mattress to scale a razor-wire fence.

Oct. 13: Selenski surrenders to state police at 8:40 p.m. at his Kingston Township home. He is taken to the State Correctional Institution at Dallas where he is held in a restricted housing unit.

Nov. 18: District Justice James Tupper rules Selenski will stand trial on two counts each of criminal homicide, robbery and abuse of corpse, and a single count of criminal conspiracy.

During the preliminary hearing, Patrick Raymond Russin testifies that Selenski brought Keiler and James to the Mount Olivet Road home in May to “feel them out” as possible robbery targets and then decided to kill them midway through the evening. He said he saw Selenski, 30, shoot both men around 1 a.m. May 14 and Keiler inside the house several hours later.

Russin said the bodies were dragged to a pit on the property and set on fire.

2004

Feb. 5: The Luzerne County district attorney’s office announces it will seek the death penalty against Selenski.

Feb. 6: Selenski’s aunt, Catherine Marie Falzone, and her 17-year-old son are charged with hindering apprehension for hiding Selenski in her home the day after his escape.

Feb. 9: A heavily restrained Selenski pleads not guilty to murder charges.

March 12: The estranged wife of Kerkowski is arrested on a federal weapons charge for disposing firearms to known drug addicts or drug users. She later pleads guilty.

June 6: Selenski tells The Citizens’ Voice in an exclusive interview, “I’m not claiming I wasn’t involved, but there are other people more involved.”

June 9: Federal investigators charge Selenski’s younger brother with providing the accused killer with two shotguns, including the weapon used in two slayings.

2005

Dec. 22: The state Superior Court upholds Judge Peter Paul Olszewski Jr.’s earlier ruling that jurors will not hear an alleged incriminating statement made by Selenski that five bodies would be found on his property, because Selenski was not read his miranda rights when he allegedly made the comment.

2006

Jan. 24: Christina Strom pleads guilty to helping Selenski launder thousands of dollars he allegedly got through drug dealing, robbery and murder.

She agrees to cooperate with authorities in the investigation and admits in federal court that she was aware money used to purchase her Kingston Township home came from murders and other criminal activity.

Feb. 10: Olszewski rules that Selenski can be held at the Luzerne County Correctional Facility — from which he once escaped — during his trial.

Feb. 15: Olszewski rules Selenski can’t be prosecuted for his escape, stating that prosecutors waited too long to merge the separate homicide and escape charges for trial.

Feb. 21: Jury selection begins in the much anticipated Selenski murder trail. Of the total 150 potential jorors, all 150 jurors said they have heard something about the case.

Feb. 25: By the end of the first week of jury selection, only nine jurors have been selected. A total of 12 jururs and 4 alternates are needed in order to begin the trial.

The biggest murder trial in the history of Luzerne County since the last one is set to start next week. I usually stay away from blogging about crime and punishment but this story is facinating.

The Hugo story will probably be a movie of the week (hopefully not on Lifetime). He is accused of killing 3 or more people and mutilating the corpses then burying them behind his house. There were a few more bodies discovered out there that are unaccounted for. He was arrested and sent to the Luzerne County Prison and then escaped using bed sheets. Bed sheets! What a cliche but it worked.

Doctor Rick said...
I think he should be exonerated for executing the duties of natural selection. He only killed other scumbags.
7:39 PM

D.B. Echo said...
Strolling through the online blogs, particularly the enormous and inordinate numbers of comments, it's pretty clear that Hugo Selenski is the closest thing NEPA has to Michael Jackson. I even know a few women who have looked into his baby-blues as he's been televised going into and out of hearings and have said, "Wow, he's SOOO cute!" Ted Bundy was quite the charmer, too, as I recall.

Doctor Rick, I velieve that's the attitude of the current Wilkes-Barre administration, that we've got scumbags killing scumbags on the streets - "Street Chess", one of them called it - so as long as they stick to killing each other, what's the problem? (Aside from the occasional bit of little old lady collateral damage - but, hey, nothing's perfect, right?)
11:24 PM

Doctor Rick said...
I would have entitled this post: Shoots & Ladders
4:13 AM

soccermike said...
I still don't know why he didn't run for the border when he had the chance. He could be sipping girly drinks on a beach in Mexico somewhere.
2:06 PM

con groupie sally said...
I just looooovvve Hugo! He's such a hunk! He can hide in my attic anytime, he's sooooo cool! He could never murder anyone; they planted those bodies to frame him! NO one that good looking could hurt a fly! Besides, he killed drug dealers--they should give him a medal! I just looove those baby blues! My girlfriends and me are going to camp out for trial tickets! Forget Kanye--we love you HUGO!
10:12 AM

Dr. Cyril Wecht, the former Allegheny County medical examiner who has consulted on the deaths of Elvis Presley and JonBenet Ramsey, has been retained by Selenski’s defense team to analyze bones found in Selenski’s back yard. Also, it is quite possible Wecht will testify at Hugo Selenski’s double-homicide trial, a defense attorney and former prosecutor said.