Defense witness says man with bodies in yard let him ride ATVs on his property

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. – A man on trial in the 2002 strangulation deaths of a pharmacist and the pharmacist's girlfriend has launched his defense.

Hugo Selenski is charged with killing Michael Kerkowski and Tammy Fassett in a plot to rob the pharmacist of proceeds from an illegal prescription drug ring. Their bodies were found in a shallow grave on Selenski's property north of Wilkes-Barre along with three others.

Selenski has pleaded not guilty.

One of Selenski's neighbors told a jury Thursday that he helped the defendant remodel his house and do landscaping beginning about a month after authorities say Selenski buried the bodies. He says he also rode all-terrain vehicles on Selenski's property.

He says Selenski never told him that any area of the yard was off-limits.