Adams claims innocence during resentencing for ‘85 murder

June 7, 2016 at 12:05a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

All Bennie Adams would say Monday as he was resentenced in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court for the 1985 murder of a Youngstown State University student is that he is innocent.

But Judge Lou D’Apolito said the evidence from his 2008 trial was “overwhelming” while the sister of victim Gina Tenney said Adams faces a far-worse punishment than any court could ever dole out.

“Prepare yourself, Mr. Adams,” wrote Gina’s sister, Rhonda Tenney Reed, who could not be present in court Monday. “You will be held accountable by a much higher power than any here on this Earth. And that punishment will be far worse than the one you will receive here today.”

Adams originally was sentenced to death by former Judge Timothy Franken after he was convicted in 2008 of Tenney’s death.

Long a suspect, Adams, 60, was charged in the crime after DNA evidence collected at the scene and preserved by the former head of the police department’s Crime Lab, the late Detective Sgt. Joe DeMatteo, was submitted to the state Bureau of Criminal Investigation after former state Attorney General Marc Dann asked police departments to resubmit evidence in cold case homicides. BCI was able to match the DNA at the crime scene to Adams.

Adams appealed his conviction and the death sentence. The conviction was upheld by the state Supreme Court, but the death sentence was overturned because the high court found there was not enough evidence to convict Adams of aggravated burglary, a factor which was required to make Adams eligible for a death penalty specification.

Adams was sentenced Monday to life in prison with parole eligibility after 20 years, which was the maximum penalty for aggravated murder at the time Tenney was murdered.

Tenney’s parents, who attended the original trial, are deceased, but her sister, who lives in Texas, asked that her statement be read into the record, which was done by Assistant Prosecutor Martin Desmond, who prosecuted Adams in 2008.

In her statement, Tenney Reed said her parents never got over their daughter’s murder, and they visited her grave every day until they were no longer able to do so.

“Not only did I have my own grief about losing my sister, but I had to watch my parents grieve their youngest child, which broke my heart even further,” Tenney Reed wrote.

“You have never expressed remorse to my family for taking Gina’s life,” she wrote.

Adams’ attorney, John Juhasz, said his client was not prepared to make any remarks because the parties were in agreement as to the sentencing, but Adams did address the court briefly.

“I just want to say again for the record I didn’t kill Gina Tenney,” Adams said.

Tenney’s body was found Dec. 29, 1985, floating in the Mahoning River by a muskrat trapper under the West Avenue bridge. An autopsy at the time found she was raped and strangled before she was thrown into the river.

Adams was a suspect at the time because he lived in the same Ohio Avenue duplex as Tenney, who was a student at YSU from Ashtabula County, and Tenney had complained that Adams was harassing her, staring through her window and trying to talk to her. She was preparing to leave just before she was killed.

Shortly after the crime, a detective found Tenney’s bank card, the keys to her car and apartment, her television and a potholder in Adams’ apartment. Witnesses also testified they had observed Adams attempting to withdraw money using Tenney’s card and driving off in the victim’s vehicle.

It wasn’t until the DNA evidence linked Adams to the crime that he was indicted. The detective who investigated the case, William Blanchard, was present in the court Monday.

Adams also served an 18-year prison sentence shortly after Tenney’s death for a rape in an unrelated case.