Jurors continue deliberating Adams’ fate

YOUNGSTOWN — An eight-woman, four-man jury continues today to deliberate whether Bennie Adams will serve life in prison, or get the death penalty, for the 1985 murder of Gina Tenney.

Keep an eye on NewsWatch for an update when the verdict happens.

The same jury had convicted Adams last 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 case last year after a DNA match was found in evidence police had preserved for 22 years.