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Deaths prompt delay of YSU student's murder trial
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Bennie Adams
Both parents of the lead defense lawyer died recently.
YOUNGSTOWN — The death penalty murder trial of Bennie L. Adams, accused of killing a Youngstown State University student nearly 23 years ago, has been indefinitely postponed.
Judge Timothy E. Franken of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court granted the postponement at the request of defense lawyer Tony Meranto during a Friday status hearing on the case.
Meranto asked for the delay because both parents of the lead defense lawyer, Lou DeFabio, died unexpectedly within the past three weeks, making it impossible for DeFabio to devote time to trial preparation.
Adams told the judge he doesn’t object to a delay beyond the Aug. 13 date that had been scheduled for the start of his trial.
Adams, 50, of Hollywood Avenue, faces an aggravated murder charge with a death-penalty specification in the Dec. 29, 1985, strangulation of Gina Tenney, 19, a YSU student who was his neighbor.
Tenney’s body was found floating in the Mahoning River near West Avenue on Dec. 30, 1985.
Adams was indicted last fall after a DNA match was found in evidence police had preserved for 22 years.
At the request of the defense, Judge Franken has dismissed the aggravated robbery, aggravated burglary, kidnapping and rape charges against Adams in the Tenney case because the six-year statute of limitations for those charges expired long ago.
Those allegations remain, however, as elements in support of the death-penalty specification, said Martin P. Desmond, assistant county prosecutor.
There is no statute of limitations for murder or aggravated murder charges under Ohio law.
Thirty-two people are on a prosecution witness list, including Dr. Humphrey Germaniuk, a forensic pathologist with the Trumbull County Coroner’s office, a retired Ohio Adult Parole Authority officer, three agents of the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation, and city police officers, detectives and supervisors.
milliken@vindy.com