ADAMS TRIAL | Jurors get cold murder case

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Bennie Adams

YOUNGSTOWN — The prosecution cited numerous items of circumstantial evidence it said showed Bennie Adams killed Gina Tenney on Dec. 29, 1985, but the defense said there were numerous gaps and inconsistencies in the prosecution’s case.

“Every single piece of evidence points to Bennie Adams,” Dawn Cantalamessa, assistant Mahoning County prosecutor, told the jury in her closing argument this morning in Adams trial.

Cantalamessa cited Tenney’s ATM card, which was found in Adams’ jacket; the testimony of witnesses who said they saw Adams using an ATM the night of Tenney’s death; Tenney’s keys and potholder found in wastebaskets in the apartment Adams occupied; her TV, which bore Adams fingerprints; and Adams’ DNA, which was found on Tenney’s body.

“No one else on this earth has the same DNA,” Cantalamessa said.

But Lou DeFabio, the lead defense lawyer, said the prosecution has been unable to ascertain the time or location of Tenney’s death, and he cited inconsistencies between witness statements made to police in the initial investigation almost 23 years ago and their testimony in this trial.

DeFabio said the prosecution failed to meet its burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

Adams is charged with aggravated murder with a death penalty specification in the strangulation death of Tenney. Rape, aggravated burglary, aggravated robbery and kidnapping are listed by the prosecution as elements in support of the death specification.

Tenney, a 19-year-old Youngstown State University student, was Adams’ neighbor in an Ohio Avenue duplex. Her frozen body was found in the Mahoning River on Dec. 30, 1985.

Adams, 51, was indicted for the aggravated murder of Tenney late last year after a DNA match was found in evidence police had preserved for 22 years.

Immediately after the lawyers made closing statements, Judge Timothy E. Franken of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court gave jurors instructions on the law as it applies to this case, and they began their deliberations.

Jurors arrived at the courthouse this morning with their suitcases, prepared to be sequestered in a hotel during any overnight breaks in their deliberations.