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Two capital murder cases take center stage in Mahoning County this week
YOUNGSTOWN — When jurors in two simultaneous capital murder trials return to the Mahoning County Courthouse on Tuesday, the first trial will be nearing closing arguments and the second will be starting with a crime scene visit.
The trial of Michael A. Davis, the 18-year-old accused of setting the Stewart Avenue house fire that killed six people on Jan. 23, has proceeded with lightning speed before Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
In that case, jury selection took a mere 2 1/2 days, despite separate individual interviews being conducted with each potential juror out of earshot of other prospective jurors. Judge Krichbaum credited the lawyers for heeding his request to limit repetition in their questioning of prospective jurors.
The prosecution predicted it would need three days to present its case; but its presentation, which began Thursday morning and included 23 witnesses, took just a day and a half.
The defense, which predicted its case would take no more than two days to present, will put its first witness on the stand at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday.
After defense witnesses testify, the prosecuting and defense lawyers will make their closing arguments, and the judge will instruct the jurors before their deliberations begin.
Jurors in the Davis case are to arrive at the courthouse Tuesday prepared for the possibility they may be sequestered in a hotel that night. In death penalty cases, jurors must be sequestered during any overnight breaks in their deliberations.
Jurors arriving at 9 a.m. Tuesday for the capital murder trial of Bennie L. Adams in the 1985 strangulation of 19-year-old Gina Tenney will first be taken to view the crime scenes.
In a viewing requested by defense lawyers, they’ll visit the duplex in which Adams and Tenney were neighbors in the 2200 block of Ohio Avenue; then they’ll be shown the spot where Tenney’s body was found floating in the Mahoning River at West Avenue, the day after her death.
When they return from their trip, jurors will hear opening statements from the lawyers in the trial, which is before Judge Timothy E. Franken.
Adams was arrested in this cold case last year after a DNA match was found in evidence police had preserved for 22 years.