Defense rests in Adams murder trial

YOUNGSTOWN — Prosecutors rested their case Friday in the Bennie Adams aggravated murder trial after their star witness testified. The trial resumes Monday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court with defense witnesses and closing arguments.

Brenda Girardi, a scientist with the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation, said DNA from the body and underwear of Youngstown State University student Gina Tenney came from Adams.

Tenney’s body was found in the Mahoning River Dec. 30, 1985, near the West Avenue Bridge. Dr. Humphrey Germaniuk, Trumbull County’s forensic pathologist, said Friday Tenney probably died sometime the evening before.

The DNA evidence, resubmitted to BCI last fall after the case had gone cold for 22 years, led to Adams’ indictment last October.

Adams was convicted of raping a Boardman woman in November 1986 — 11 months after Tenney’s death. Adams spent 18 years in prison for that crime.

If convicted of killing Tenney, Adams could get the death penalty. Adams was Tenney’s downstairs neighbor on Ohio Avenue.

The new DNA evidence, coupled with testimony this week about Adams bothering Tenney in the months leading up to her death and testimony from a witness who saw him using Tenney’s car and ATM card the night she died built a substantial case against the 51-year-old Youngstown man.

But as Anthony Meranto, one of Adams’ defense attorneys said in opening statements, the prosecution had only circumstantial evidence.

No eyewitness testified to seeing or hearing Tenney being killed. No witness said they saw Adams dump the body into the river. And no witness said Adams admitted to killing Tenney.

Friday was science day in the trial, as Dr. Germaniuk, Girardi, a fingerprint expert, a blood-type expert, and a crime lab worker testified on physical evidence.

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