Testimony: Actions of accused upset victim

By Ed Runyan

A witness testified to seeing Adams driving the murder victim’s car the night she died.

YOUNGSTOWN — Gina Tenney liked living alone, liked her Ohio Avenue apartment about a mile-and-a-half north of Youngstown State University, but didn’t like the unwelcome attention she was getting from her downstairs neighbor, Bennie Adams.

When the 19-year-old YSU sophomore would come home or leave, Adams, then 28, would watch her through the front window, according to testimony.

And in November, after she had lived there about five months and broken up with her boyfriend, Mark Passarello, Adams started calling her at night.

Marvin Robinson was Tenney’s best friend at YSU, having taken several courses with her their freshman year and being involved in student government with her.

Tenney even talked Robinson into getting an apartment on Fairgreen Avenue and sharing it with Passarello starting in the fall of 1985.

Robinson, testifying Thursday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court in the aggravated murder trial of Adams, accused of killing Tenney on Dec. 29, 1985, said Adams’ phone calls made her “very upset.”

At first, she was upset because he called her late at night, said Robinson, now director of the Kelleys Island Chamber of Commerce.

It was after 10 p.m., he said, because he and Tenney were busy all day with classes and other activities and didn’t go home until then.

In the phone calls, Adams, now 51, would ask if he could come up to her apartment and talk to her, Robinson said, adding that Tenney would call Robinson immediately after each call.

She was upset about the calls, but “she was polite and she said she was busy. She said she had a paper to do to get him off the phone,” Robinson said.

Tenney told Adams to stop calling, Robinson said, but when he didn’t, she changed her phone number.

Soon after, Adams left a card under her door, addressed to “A very sweet and confused young lady.” Inside the card, Adams wrote, “Love, Bennie,” Robinson said.

The day she received the card, she showed it to Robinson.

“Look what I found under the door,” Tenney told Robinson. “She was upset,” Robinson said.

When Martin Desmond, an assistant county prosecutor, asked Robinson what Tenney’s mental state was, Robinson said Tenney wanted to know, “Why won’t he leave me alone?”

On Christmas Day, someone tried to break into her apartment while she was inside, which led Tenney to call Youngstown police and have friends stay overnight with her several nights, Robinson said.

An earlier witness Thursday was John Allie, who described seeing a man he recognized “from the neighborhood” using Tenney’s car and ATM card at the former Dollar Bank branch in Liberty the night Tenney died.

Allie identified Adams to police a few days afterward and identified the car Adams had been using, a Buick that belonged to Tenney.

Allie and his wife were waiting to use the ATM but had to wait about 15 minutes for Adams to finish. Adams seemed like he “didn’t know what he was doing” because he was punching lots of numbers on the machine, Allie said.

A few minutes after Allie’s wife, Sandra, walked into the lobby containing the ATM, Adams walked out. Once outside, he put his hands on the Allies’ car, waved at John Allie and left in Tenney’s Buick, John Allie said.

A bank accountant also testified Thursday that someone using Tenney’s card made four unsuccessful attempts to withdraw money from Tenney’s bank account at that ATM machine that night. Tenney’s ATM card was found in Adams’ coat pocket the next day by police.

But on Jan. 2, 1985, Adams told William Soccorsy, a retired parole officer, that he found Tenney’s ATM card on his front porch Dec. 30, Soccorsy testified Thursday. Dec. 30 is a day after Allie saw Adams at the ATM machine.

Prosecution witnesses are expected to conclude today with defense witnesses testifying Monday.

If convicted of killing Tenney, Adams could get the death penalty.

The case is being handled by Judge Timothy E. Franken.

runyan@vindy.com