WILKES-BARRE, Pa. (AP) - A man who pleaded guilty to trying to hire a hit man to kill a witness to the murder of two people found buried in northeastern Pennsylvania a decade ago has been sentenced to 15 to 30 years in prison.
Michael Scerbo, 41, was sentenced Friday in Luzerne County on his plea to a charge of solicitation to commit homicide, The (Wilkes-Barre) Times Leader reported (https://bit.ly/1j55qzT ). He was given credit for 750 days he has served.
Authorities alleged that Scerbo offered $1,000 to an undercover state trooper in 2012 to kill 44-year-old Paul Weakley, a key prosecution witness against Hugo Selenski, who is charged in a pair of 2002 strangulations. The bodies of the victims, Michael Kerkowski and Tammy Fassett, both 38, were among a number of sets of human remains found on Selenski’s rural property outside Wilkes-Barre in 2003.
Weakley testified in a 2006 trial in which Selenski, 40, was acquitted of the murders of two other people found on the property but was convicted of abuse of a corpse. Selenski is serving 32 1/2 to 65 years in a Monroe County home invasion and could face the death penalty.
Earlier this month, a judge said Selenski’s long-delayed double homicide trial would begin in November “barring any unforeseen circumstances.” Selenski told reporters that he doubted the November trial date would stand.
Weakley is serving a life sentence after pleading guilty to a federal racketeering conspiracy count related to the case. He has sued the federal Bureau of Prisons, saying he has been attacked three times by people who saw him as an informant. Prosecutors cited the attacks in asking the courts to speed up the appeals process in Selenski’s case.
___
Information from: Times Leader, https://www.timesleader.com
Please read our comment policy before commenting.