WILKES-BARRE - Luzerne County prosecutors want double-homicide suspect Hugo Selenski evicted from the Luzerne County Correctional Facility - the jail from which he escaped using bedsheets.
Mr. Selenski, 39, is technically a state inmate in connection with a home invasion/robbery conviction in Monroe County, but has been allowed to stay at the county jail since April 2012 to prepare for his trial on a second set of double murder charges in Luzerne County.
Since Mr. Selenski's oft-delayed second trial is on indefinite hold pending an appeal to the state Supreme Court, the prison now wants Mr. Selenski booted because it is in "desperate need of cell space" in the Restricted Housing Unit, prosecutors said in a motion filed Wednesday in Luzerne County Court.
Prosecutors note Mr. Selenski's security classification is high because of his escape from the Luzerne lockup in 2003 while being held on double-murder charges.
In September 2009, Mr. Selenski was sentenced to 32½ to 65 years in state prison for the Monroe County home-invasion conviction. Prosecutors say Mr. Selenski should immediately be sent to state prison to serve that conviction until his second Luzerne County murder trial, for the 2002 killings of pharmacist Michael Kerkowski and Mr. Kerkowski's girlfriend, Tammy Fassett, nears again. A Luzerne County judge will eventually rule on the prosecution's request to remove Mr. Selenski from the county jail.
Contact the writer: bkalinowski@citizensvoice.com