Jurors deliberate whether Bennie Adams lives or dies

YOUNGSTOWN — Jurors have begun deliberating whether Bennie Adams lives or dies following his conviction for the 1985 murder of Gina Tenney.

After receiving their final instructions from Judge Timothy E. Franken of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, jurors began their deliberations at 2 p.m. today. They will be sequestered in a hotel if there is any overnight break in their deliberations.

The same eight-woman, four-man jury convicted Adams Wednesday of aggravated murder with a death penalty specification.

Tenney, a 19-year-old Youngstown State University student, who was Adams’ upstairs neighbor in an Ohio Avenue duplex, died by strangulation on Dec. 29, 1985. Her frozen body was found floating in the Mahoning River near West Avenue the following day.

Adams, 51, was indicted in the cold case last year after a DNA match was found in evidence police had preserved for 22 years.

When they emerge from deliberations, the jurors can recommend 25 years to life in prison, 30 to life, life without parole or death.