(AP) Convicted strangler Hugo Selenski's bid to get a new trial for a 2003 home-invasion robbery hit a wall Thursday when a three-judge panel of the state Superior Court rejected his appeal.

In addition to serving a life sentence for murder, Selenski, 43, is serving 32½ to 65 years in prison for robbing a Monroe County jeweler in January 2003 after binding him with duct tape, plastic ties and handcuffs.Selenski's appeal centered on a claim that he was improperly denied the chance to call a memory expert to the stand who his lawyers argued would have cast doubt on the victim's recollection of the robbery.The basis for the appeal was a "watershed decision" the state Supreme Court issued in 2014 that ended a ban on expert testimony regarding eyewitness identifications, the Superior Court judges wrote.The judges wrote that the ruling holds that expert evidence about eyewitness identifications is most relevant when a case is "solely or primarily dependent on the identifications," but that judges have discretion to allow such testimony in other cases as well.However, the judges ruled the trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying Selenski a new trial because the case was not solely dependant on the victim, Samuel Goosay, identifying Selenski as the robber. The judges noted the case contained an "abundance of circumstantial evidence," which Selenski himself did not dispute in his appeal."Clearly, in light of all of the circumstantial evidence, the commonwealth's case was not 'solely' dependent on Mr. Goosay's eyewitness identification," the judges wrote."And a review of the record makes clear that it was not 'primarily' dependent on the identification either. Rather, the primary evidence in the case was the forensic evidence linking (Selenski) to the crime scene and demonstrating (his) common scheme in Luzerne County."During Selenski's 2015 double-murder trial, prosecutors called Goosay - who has since died - to testify to demonstrate Selenski's modus operandi.The jeweler testified that Selenski and his accomplice, Paul Weakley, bound him with flex ties and put duct tape over his eyes as they robbed him at gunpoint.Details of the robbery were strikingly similar to the murder case involving pharmacist Michael Kerkowski and his girlfriend Tammy Fassett, both 37, who were strangled with flex ties in a robbery over money Kerkowski made illegally selling prescription painkillers.Weakley, 47, pleaded guilty to federal racketeering charges in that case and is serving life in prison at United States Penitentiary Tucson in Arizona.After being convicted of first-degree murder, Selenski was sentenced to life without parole and is serving his sentence at State Correctional Facility Forest.