Selenski pleads guilty to escape

By Sheena Delazio sdelazio@timesleader.comStaff Writer

WILKES-BARRE – Double-homicide suspect pleaded guilty Thursday to escaping from the Luzerne County prison in October 2003, but he said he won’t be pleading guilty to anything else.

Selenski entered the plea just hours after a Luzerne County senior judge denied a request by Selenski’s attorney to continue the scheduled Oct. 12 trial in which Selenski would face a jury on the escape charge.

“It’s not like I didn’t do it,” Selenski said as he left the Luzerne County Courthouse on Thursday afternoon. “I’m in one day and gone the next.”

Selenski told reporters he would not be pleading guilty to any other charges against him. He is scheduled to stand trial on Nov. 15 in the death of Michael Kerkowski and Tammy Fassett, whose bodies were unearthed from his Kingston Township property in 2003.

Selenski said he entered the plea to the escape and weapons or implements for escape charges because the case had been going on too long and something had to be done. He faces a maximum of nine years in prison on the charges, and will receive credit for time served from Oct. 13, 2003.

Thursday began with a hearing in which Senior Judge Chester Muroski addressed a motion by Selenski’s attorney, David Lampman, to continue the Oct. 12 escape trial. Lampman said he made the request because he needed more time to prepare. He said he would be using information from the Kerkowski/Fassett homicide case and the homicide charges, of which Selenski was acquitted, in the deaths of Adeiye Keiler and Frank James in 2003.

Selenski was convicted of abuse of corpse in that case.

District Attorney Jackie Musto Carroll argued Lampman had significant time to prepare for the escape trial and if he needed help, he should call upon his co-counsel, John Pike, with whom he is representing Selenski in the Kerkowski/Fassett case.

“It’s a simple case to try,” Musto Carroll said.

Lampman disputed that, telling Muroski that Selenski intended to testify at the escape trial and that he felt the timing of the escape trial wasn’t proper and the case should be tried at another time.

In May, the state Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling that allowed prosecutors to try Selenski on the escape charges. The high court agreed with the Superior Court, which overturned a county judge’s ruling that forbid the District Attorney’s Office from moving forward on the escape charges, based on an alleged violation of the right to a speedy trial.

Just days before Selenski’s escape, according to authorities, he was charged with homicide in the deaths of Keiler and James. Selenski surrendered a few days later. He was acquitted of the homicide charges and immediately charged with the deaths of Kerkowski and Fassett.

A legal matter delayed the Keiler/James trial and prosecutors never took Selenski to trial on escape charges.

Selenski’s attorney at the time, Demetrius Fannick, asked for the escape charges to be dropped, a request then-county Judge Peter Paul Olszewski Jr. ultimately granted.

Olszewski’s decision was appealed to the Superior Court, which reversed Olszewski’s ruling and reinstated the escape charges in February 2007.