By DAVID WEISS
WILKES-BARRE The night before double-homicide suspect Hugo Selenski used bed sheets to escape from the county jail, he and cellmate Scott Bolton hatched the vague plan from inside the prison:
The plan was to meet over the wall and walk up the road to daylight and then figure out what to do from there, Bolton told police, according to court papers. There was no plan to be picked up or meet anywhere.
Bolton, the court papers say, told police he became the brains of the plot after Selenski vowed to financially reimburse Bolton.
I was supposed to do all the thinking and Selenski was supposed to pay Bolton $175,000, the papers say. Selenski, the court paper say, had a large sum of money buried on his property that cops didnt find.
But the plan went awry.
Selenski, the papers say, threw Bolton from the top floor of the prison, leaving Bolton with a severed spine, permanently paralyzed from the waist down, and wheelchair bound.
Selenski then crawled down the makeshift rope of sheets and used his mattress to crawl over a razor-wire fence to freedom before surrendering three days later.
The details of the infamous episode were outlined in court papers filed Thursday in Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas on Boltons behalf.
His attorneys, Jason Mattioli and Thomas Ratchford, want those statements Bolton made to police kept out of his upcoming trial on charges connected to the escape.
The attorneys said the statements were obtained illegally or while Bolton was unable to think clearly because of numerous medications.
The 32-year-old Selenski, at the time, had been jailed at the Luzerne County Correctional Facility for months before prosecutors charged him with two homicides a few days before his escape.
Bolton was being held at the prison on theft charges when, according to the court papers, the two became cell mates.
According to those court papers:
After concocting the plan on Oct. 9, Selenski threw Bolton 50 feet from the cell window to a lower roof.
As Bolton lay on that roof with life-threatening injuries, Wilkes-Barre police officer Kirk Merchel questioned him.
Thats when Bolton told Merchel about the duos plan to meet over the wall.
Boltons attorneys said their client was in custody at the time, making any questions asked by Merchel an interrogation.
State law says a person being interrogated in custody must be read his Miranda rights. Because Bolton was not read those rights, the statement was illegally obtained and should be kept out of trial.
Bolton was flown to a hospital before being placed in the medical infirmary of the county prison.
There, Luzerne County Detective Lt. Gary Capitano interviewed Bolton on Nov. 12, 2003, after Bolton waived his Miranda rights.
During that interview, Bolton told Capitano about the alleged buried money.
But Boltons attorneys said that statement, too, should be kept from trial because Bolton was on numerous medications. The medications left him unable to think clearly, freely, and realize the consequences of waiving those rights.
Bolton is expected to stand trial soon on charges of escape and possessing weapons or implements of escape in connection with the incident.
Selenski is jailed at the State Correctional Institution at Dallas and is scheduled for trial in February on the homicides and escape.
Investigators said he used a shotgun to kill two drug dealers at his Kingston Township home in May 2003 before burning their bodies. Police learned of the alleged slayings when they found the remains of five bodies at the Mount Olivet Road home in June 2003.
Selenski has been charged in two of the deaths and has denied killing anyone. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
His attorney, Demetrius Fannick, scoffed at Boltons statements.
Mr. Selenski has always denied the allegations made by Bolton, Fannick said. (Selenski) certainly didnt push anyone out the window.
Read the most recent court papers filed in Scott Boltons case. Go to www.timesleader.com (http://www.timesleader.com)