WILKES-BARRE, Pa. (AP) – In a jailhouse conversation with his father and brother, Hugo Selenski seemed nonchalant about the slayings of a Pennsylvania pharmacist and the pharmacist’s girlfriend, whose bodies had been found buried behind his house along with three other sets of human remains.
“I absolutely deny all the charges, but if I did do it, who gives a f—?” Selenski said, according to a recording played Thursday at Selenski’s second murder trial.
Selenski, 41, is charged with strangling Michael Kerkowski and Tammy Fassett in 2002 and robbing the pharmacist of proceeds from an illegal prescription drug ring. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
Selenski launched his defense Thursday, and his attorney immediately sought to do damage control by playing more of the 2012 conversation that Selenski had with his family. Seleski’s father had just revealed he had cancer, information the defense hopes offers context to Selenski’s statement about the homicides. Ronald Selenski died last year.
Another man, Paul Weakley, has pleaded guilty to helping Selenski kill Kerkowski and Fassett and testified against Selenski earlier in the trial. The defense contends Weakley is the sole culprit.