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First Posted: 2/3/2015

WILKES-BARRE — Patrick Russin was standing next to Hugo Selenski when police showed up looking for bodies.

“I imagine it was the whole state police barracks coming up that driveway,” Russin said Tuesday. “I’ll never forget it.”

Selenski immediately turned to Russin and asked if he opened his mouth to police, he said.

Russin testified Tuesday in Luzerne County Court that he did not tell authorities Selenski had bodies buried on his property, but said Selenski knew very well what state police were looking for on June 5, 2003.

Armed with a search warrant, state police that day unearthed the remains of Michael J. Kerkowski and his girlfriend Tammy Lynn Fassett at the 479 Mt. Olivet Road property Selenski shared with his then-girlfriend Christina Strom.

Selenski, 41, is on trial for the May 3, 2002, robbery and murders of Kerkowski and Fassett.

Judge Fred A. Pierantoni III is presiding.

Russin said Selenski told him he helped Kerkowski — a pharmacist who was set to be sentenced on a number of drug charges — flee the country.

As payment for his assistance, he alleges Selenski told him, the Kerkowskis owed him $40,000. Russin said Selenski asked him to help retrieve this “package,” offering him a 25 percent cut.

Russin said he agreed, and Selenski dropped him off outside the Kerkowskis’ home one evening late in the summer after the couple disappeared. In his pocket, Russin said, he kept a cell phone so Selenski could listen in on the conversation.

“I’m here to collect a package for Hugo,” Russin said he told the late Mike S. Kerkowski.

But Kerkowski insisted he would not be giving him any package because he had not seen his son and — despite assurances to the contrary from both Russin and Selenski — believed he was dead, Russin said.

Russin testified that he told Kerkowski he knew about an “incident” between Selenski and the elder Kerkowski, and recommended he pay Selenski at least $15,000 – $20,000 in order to avoid another.

Still, Kerkowski persisted that he would not turn over any more money to Selenski until he heard from his son, he said. Russin said he then returned to Selenski and asked if he could get in touch with Michael Kerkowski.

“He basically said he would,” Russin said.

He and Selenski later came back to the Kerkowskis’ home, Russin testified, but this time Selenski had brought a gun “to scare the bejeezus out of him.”

Russin said he went to the front door, where he told Mike Kerkowski that Selenski was waiting for him in the backyard. But he said Kerkowski slipped a piece of paper containing a list of questions for Michael Kerkowski under the door and told him that if Selenski wants money, to return the answers.

Kerkowski’s wife Geraldine Kerkowski testified previously to this incident, saying only her son could provide answers to the questions. She said she wrote:

• Where were you during the Agnes Flood in 1972?

• What is your maternal grandfather’s name?

• Who did you take to your first prom?

• Who took you to Philadelphia to see an air show competition?

• What’s his nickname for his son?

The Kerkowskis never received their answers.

Approximately a week later, Russin said, he asked Selenski about his payment and about the questions.

“He said he couldn’t get in touch with Michael,” he said. “He’d gone underground.”

Russin said it was after this conversation that Selenski’s story about Michael Kerkowski began to change.

Selenski would sometimes tell him Kerkowski was dead and at others that he was alive, and would alternate between saying he killed Kerkowski and that he simply had him “stowed away,” Russin testified.

“He flip-flopped a lot,” he said.

On cross examination, defense attorney Bernard Brown interrogated Russin — as he has done repeatedly with prosecution witnesses — on his own criminal dealings, as well as his plea deal which calls for his testimony in Selenski’s trial and cuts his expected sentence in half.

Russin pleaded guilty in 2003 to third degree murder in the deaths of Adeiye Keiler and Frank James. He is serving a 10-20 year sentence in state prison. Their bodies also were discovered outside Selenski’s home.

Brown also questioned Russin about his meetings with members of the District Attorney’s Office in preparation for his testimony, and asked if he declined to meet with the defense counsel because they had nothing to offer him.

“No,” Russin replied, “that’s because I don’t help people that are in the business of hurting people.”