DNA from ’85 homicide leads to suspect’s arrest

The attorney general wants DNA from old rape and
murder cases checked.

By PATRICIA MEADE

VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER

YOUNGSTOWN — The mate to a potholder Bennie Adams had in a downstairs apartment was found upstairs in the apartment of a college coed raped and strangled in 1985, city prosecutor says.

Back then, labs did serology, or blood type tests. So, the evidence investigators believed was linked to the rape — including a vaginal swab, panties and pubic hair on one of the potholders — didn’t identify a suspect with certainty, said city Prosecutor Jay Macejko.

He said Adams’ blood sample was collected at the time for testing.

Fast forward 22 years, and “DNA cracked the case,” Macejko said. “This brings a great deal of satisfaction.”

Adams is charged with the murder of Gina Gay Tenney, a Youngstown State University student from Ashtabula.

A trapper checking his traps found the 19-year-old floating in the Mahoning River near the West Avenue bridge Dec. 30, 1985. Death was caused by strangulation, likely the day before, the coroner ruled.

Adams, 50, of Hollywood Avenue — a registered sex offender in an unrelated case — was arrested around 7:30 a.m. Thursday on his way home from work in Struthers. He was then arraigned in municipal court on charges of aggravated murder, rape, kidnapping and aggravated robbery. Judge Elizabeth A. Kobly set bond at $1.75 million and a preliminary hearing for Oct. 15.

Background

In December 1985, Adams had been staying in a woman friend’s first-floor apartment on Ohio Avenue. Tenney, who lived upstairs, reported a burglary Dec. 25, and suspected Adams was responsible, Macejko said, adding the young woman “was leery of Bennie.”

The prosecutor said Adams was always a suspect — because he had Tenney’s ATM card and was charged with receiving the stolen property — but the murder investigation “reached an impasse.”

The evidence from Tenney’s rape and murder was preserved by the Youngstown Police Department.

Capt. Kenneth Centorame, chief of detectives, credits Detective Sgt. Joe DeMatteo for collecting the evidence in 1985 and preserving it all these years. DeMatteo is commander of the bomb squad/crime lab.

The Tenney case had gone cold until Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann instructed the Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation to create a DNA database and take a look at old unsolved rapes and homicides.

“That encouraged YPD to resubmit the evidence,” Macejko said. “This is a potential capital murder case, the death penalty.”

A BCI lab took the old evidence from Tenney’s case and came up with “partial” DNA results that point to Adams, the prosecutor said.

Macejko said Adams’ DNA — a mouth swab — was collected when he was taken into custody on Thursday. The test results are expected back next week. Macejko said he’s confident that Adams’ DNA will conclusively link him to the rape-murder.

Centorame said the case does not rely exclusively on DNA. There are physical evidence and witnesses who are still around, he said.

Police Chief Jimmy Hughes said cold cases have been getting reviewed since Centorame took over as chief of detectives. Of Adams, the chief said, “Youngstown is a safer community now that this individual is off the streets.”

Other information

Looking through the Tenney file was like opening a time capsule, Macejko said.

He said detectives who went to Tenney’s apartment once knocked on Adams’ door to use his phone. “No cell phones in 1985,” the prosecutor said.

The Tenney murder was also one of the first, if not the first, he said, that used a video camera to record the collection of evidence.

Centorame said Tenney’s parents, now in their 80s, have been told of the arrest. Gina was their only daughter, he said.

Vindicator files show Adams wasn’t prosecuted for having Tenney’s ATM card but probation in an unrelated theft case was revoked based on the arrest and he remained in jail.

In January 1986, a month after Tenney’s murder, Adams was indicted in the kidnapping, rape and robbery of a Boardman woman and found guilty at trial. The crimes occurred in the summer of 1985. He served 18 years in prison, being released in 2004.

Adams, based on that rape conviction, is registered as a sexually oriented offender.

meade@vindy.com