1985 murder trial shifts to the defense

By Ed Runyan

Fingerprints on the victim’s television belonged to Bennie Adams.

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 on Dec. 30, 1985, near the West Avenue Bridge. Dr. Humphrey Germaniuk, Trumbull County’s forensic pathologist, said Friday that 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’s 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.

Dr. Germaniuk, testifying as a substitute witness for Dr. Nathan Belinky, the deceased former Mahoning County coroner, said Tenney died from either smothering or strangulation.

The smothering was indicated in Tenney’s autopsy by bruising found on her lip and chin, Dr. Germaniuk said.

Strangulation was indicated by marks found on Tenney’s neck that were made by a half-inch ligature, such as a wire or cord, he said.

The 1985 autopsy also showed bruising and scrapes on other parts of Tenney’s body, including her stomach, breast and arms. She also had ligature marks on her arms. No bruising in the woman’s sex organs was mentioned in the autopsy report, Dr. Germaniuk said.

Girardi said the chances that the DNA found in Tenney’s sex organs and in her underwear came from anyone except Adams is one in 38 trillion, or more than 1,000 times the population of the planet.

Adams was charged with receiving stolen property on Dec. 30, 1985, after police entered Adams’ apartment and found several items inside belonging to Tenney: her ATM card in Adams’ jacket, her television in a bedroom and her keys in a wastebasket.

Police also found a potholder with red hair on it in the wastebasket that had a mate in Tenney’s apartment.

Dale Laux, another scientist from BCI, testified that the red hair on the potholder “was consistent with” Tenney’s hair, meaning it might have been hers but might not have been.

A grand jury refused to indict Adams on the receiving stolen property charge, and Prosecutor Gary Van Brocklin refused to prosecute Adams for murder.

Sheryl Mahan, a former BCI fingerprint expert, testified that fingerprints taken off Tenney’s television included four that came from Adams. None of them matched another man in Adams’ apartment Dec. 30, Horace Landers, who has since died.

The ATM card was never analyzed for fingerprints, Mahan said. Detective Joseph DeMatteo of the Youngstown Police Department Crime Lab testified he doesn’t know why the card was never turned over for fingerprinting.

Adams, of Hollywood Avenue, is charged with aggravated murder, with death-penalty specifications, accusing him of killing Tenney along with committing rape, aggravated robbery, aggravated burglary and kidnapping.

If convicted of murder with any of the specifications, a separate penalty phase would be held to determine whether he should be put to death.

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

runyan@vindy.com