Attorney Kimberly Rigby of the Ohio Public Defender’s Office shows an exhibit to a juror testifying by video Monday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court. The juror testified that fellow jurors suggested to him during the 2008 murder trial of Benny Adams that they knew about Adams’ previous rape conviction — something they were not allowed to know. Staff photo / Ed Runyan

YOUNGSTOWN — An unusual hearing in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court on Monday left Judge Anthony Donofrio to decide whether some jurors knew too much about Bennie Adams’ criminal background when they convicted Adams in 2008 in the 1985 murder of Youngstown State University student Gina Tenney. If they did, Adams’ attorney wants Adams to get a new trial.

On the first day of the hearing, most of the testimony came from jurors who said they and fellow jurors were not aware of Adams’ earlier conviction, but one juror identified three jurors he said made statements indicating they did know — in violation of the warnings from then-Judge Tim Franken not to obtain information about the defendant or the case outside of court.

Adams, 65, was convicted of killing Tenney, his upstairs neighbor, on Ohio Avenue in 1985, and the jury recommended that Adams get the death penalty, which was later reduced to 20 years to life in prison. Adams did not attend the hearing.

A federal judge ruled that Donofrio, who oversees the court Franken ran, needed to hold a hearing to determine whether some jurors knew that Adams had been convicted of rape and spent 17 years in prison before the 2008 trial. He also ordered Donofrio to determine when the jurors knew that information.

By the end of the day Monday, all witnesses had testified, except one who had a medical emergency. It was unclear Monday when the witness will be available, but possibly as soon as today.

During the early part of the hearing Monday, witness after witness said they never learned anything about Adams’ earlier criminal record until after the trial ended.

But a male juror testified by videoconference that a female juror approached him after the jury had recommended that Adams get the death penalty and told him she knew something that might make him feel better.

The male juror had been struggling with whether he wanted to vote for the death penalty. He decided to vote for the death penalty, and the female juror told him that “if it makes you feel better, (Adams) had been in prison on a rape charge,” he said. The conversation took place at lunch, after the jury had decided to vote for death but before the jury announced its death verdict.

The male juror also testified to being told something similar by another female juror. This conversation took place at a dinner attended by about 10 jurors after they left the courthouse after the trial was complete.

He described the female juror only by her hair color and age. At the restaurant, she told the male juror Adams had “been in jail for another rape. I don’t know if she said the number of years, but it was lot of years. And she said ‘We were were dying to tell you.” He said the female juror was “clearly” indicating “we” included the male jury foreman, who was sitting nearby, listening to the conversation.

Under cross examination by Ed Czopur, assistant county prosecutor, the male juror agreed that neither the blonde juror nor the jury foreman said anything to him about a prior rape conviction during the trial. And he agreed the jury foreman never said anything at all about a “prior conviction.”

The blonde juror never indicated when she learned about Adams’ prior rape conviction, the male juror agreed. Likewise, the earlier female juror never said when she learned of Adams’ prior conviction, the male juror agreed.

The jury foreman, meanwhile, testified that he did not believe anything improper happened. He said he was not aware of Adams’ prior conviction during the trial but said he “didn’t understand why” prosecutors were not allowed to tell jurors about it.

He said the first time he learned that Adams had a prior rape conviction was when prosecutors told jurors after the trial — including the penalty phase — was over.

Gregory Meyers of the Ohio Public Defender’s office, who represents Adams, asked the foreman whether he was aware of a female juror telling a male juror about Adams’ earlier conviction.

“No, sir, not at all, ever,” he said. Then the foreman offered, “It didn’t make any difference anyhow. He was guilty for what he did.”

Meyers also asked if it was true the Adams case was the foreman’s fifth time as a juror, and he agreed it was, twice on murder cases.

A blonde female juror testified that in recent months she was contacted by attorneys for the prosecutor’s office and defense in the lead-up to the hearing.

She said the jurors were being “picked at” by the attorneys. “I was asked did I find something out prior to the conviction or after,” she said.

Meyers asked her: “Did you know?”

She said “I didn’t.”

Myers said, “That he had a prior conviction?”

“No,” she said.

She only learned that Adams had a prior conviction “after everything was over,” she said. That happened when a female juror mentioned it to her as the two of them were walking out of the courthouse right after the case was over, she said.