WILKES-BARRE -- We are still waiting for a verdict in Hugo Selenski's double murder trial in Luzerne County Court.
The jury began their second day of deliberations after 10 a.m. Wednesday.
The jury of 6 women and 6 men deliberated for about four hours Tuesday.
Just before noon, the judge called the jurors back to the courtroom to ask them if they had avoided all media and outside discussion about the case. Each juror stood and said yes.
Around 2 p.m. we finally got some idea of what's been going on in the deliberation room when the jury passed the judge a note with five questions on it.
The first question was, "for all 10 counts does the verdict have to be unanimous, or majority rules?"
The judge instructed them that the court will only accept a verdict that is agreed upon by all 12 jurors and that applies to each count.
The other questions were about the definition of robbery and solicitation of criminal homicide.
The judge clarified solicitation by telling the jury that in order to find Hugo Selenski guilty of that, they would have to find that he "demanded or encouraged another person to engage in an attempt or commission of criminal homicide."
The prosecution alleges that Hugo Selenski robbed and killed Michael Kerkowski and Tammy Fassett in 2002, then buried their bodies in the backyard of his home near Dallas.
They say he tried to get Rodney Samson to help him. Samson testified during the trial that he turned Selenski down. That's when the prosecution says Selenski got help from Paul Weakley to rob and kill Kerkowski and Fassett.
The jury is considering all this information as they continue to deliberate. They are considering ten counts against Selenski. That includes charges ranging from robbery to criminal homicide.
The judge instructed jurors to go over the testimony of each witness who took the stand.
Those witnesses included Paul Weakley, who testified he was Selenski's accomplice. He detailed how he and Selenski robbed, beat, and killed Michael Kerkowski and Tammy Fassett in 2002, and then buried their bodies in Selenski's backyard near Dallas.
Another witness was Geraldine Kerkowski, the mother of Michael Kerkowski. During her testimony, she confronted Selenski, telling him at one point to, "take that smile off your face."
In his closing argument, defense attorney Bernard Brown told the jury that prosecutors have tried to demonize Selenski. Brown admitted that Selesnki is, "not a choir boy, we're just saying he did not kill Michael Kerkowski and Tammy Fassett."
Brown also pointed out that although prosecutors presented more than 30 witnesses. He said there's, "not a single, solitary piece of forensic evidence, in all the flex ties, the duct tape, all the cars that they seized."
At Hugo Selenski's murder trial in 2006, it took a jury more than 20 hours over the course of three days to find him not guilty of first degree murder.
If they find him guilty of first degree murder, the next step would be to decide if he should be sentenced to death.
