Tenney murder case enters penalty phase
FRIEND’S COMFORT: Penny Sergeff of Ashtabula, a friend of Gina Tenney’s, breaks into tears after the guilty verdict was read in the aggravated- murder trial of Bennie Adams. She is hugged by Gina’s sister, Rhonda Tenney Gliva.
GUILTY MAN: A jury in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court found Bennie Adams, center, guilty of the aggravated murder of Gina Tenney almost 23 years ago. He’s handcuffed by deputy sheriffs as his defense team, Lou DeFabio, left, and Tony Meranto, watch.
YOUNGSTOWN — The jury will likely begin deliberating early this afternoon whether Bennie Adams should get a life or death sentence for the 1985 murder of Gina Tenney, said Lou DeFabio, Adams’ lead defense lawyer.
The hearing in the penalty phase of Adams’ trial begins at 9 a.m. before Judge Timothy E. Franken of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
The same jurors who convicted Adams on Wednesday of killing Gina Tenney return today to hear testimony in the penalty phase. As they were earlier, the jurors will once again be sequestered in a hotel during any overnight breaks in their deliberations.
The jurors found Adams guilty of the Dec. 29, 1985, aggravated murder of Tenney with a death-penalty specification.
The frozen body of Tenney, a 19-year-old Youngstown State University student who was Adams’ Ohio Avenue duplex neighbor, was found floating in the Mahoning River near West Avenue the day after her strangulation death.
The cold case was reopened after several years with a DNA match.
After the judge gives the jurors preliminary instructions, the prosecution and defense will make opening statements, and the prosecution will introduce the trial exhibits into evidence.
The prosecution has not submitted a witness list, but the defense plans to call six witnesses to make its case that the 51-year-old Adams’ life should be spared.
Those witnesses will include Jack Mumma and Patricia Olsen, who were Adams’ teachers while he was in prison for 18 years for the rape of a Boardman woman. Adams was their aide.
Other witnesses will be Adams’ mother, Lula, 71, of East LaClede Avenue; Adams’ daughter, Trush Charlton, 32, of Hollywood Avenue; and Charlton’s mother, Lowrine Charlton, 51, of Shields Road, Boardman.
Also scheduled to testify is Adams’ parole officer, Robert O’Malley.
Once the witnesses finish testifying, closing arguments will be made by the prosecution and defense, followed by a rebuttal from the prosecution, and the judge will give jurors their final instructions before they begin deliberating.
Adams may make a sworn statement, an unsworn statement or no statement at today’s hearing.
If Adams makes an unsworn statement, the prosecution may not comment on it, except to tell the jury that the statement is unsworn and not cross-examined, and that the other witnesses made sworn statements, the judge ruled.
The jury may recommend 25 years to life in prison, 30 to life, life without parole or the death penalty.
Judge Franken has told jurors they must choose the sentence they think is appropriate and assume it will be carried out.
The judge will later impose the sentence, but he cannot impose death if the jury recommends life.
milliken@vindy.com