YOUNGSTOWN — The male juror in the 2008 Bennie Adams aggravated murder trial, who testified last month that a female juror told him something she wasn’t supposed to know about Adams’ previous criminal history, says he is not confused about the time when the remark was made and stands by his testimony.

He has testified that the woman told him Adams had been in prison for rape prior to the trial. She told the male juror about it during a juror lunch break in the courtroom before the final verdict on the death penalty was announced in 2008.

The Vindicator is not identifying the jurors.

He said the lunch took place after the jury found Adams guilty of the murder of Gina Tenney, and after the jury had decided to recommend the death penalty for Adams. But the lunch took place before the jury announced its death verdict, he said.

The male juror told The Vindicator he knows that’s when the remark was made. “I pride myself on my memory. I have a good memory,” he said.

He also knows the remark came before announcing the death verdict because he remembers the jury foreman saying they should wait to announce their verdict on the death penalty until after they got “another free lunch.”

The woman made the remark to make him feel better, the male juror said. “She was trying to be a nice person. I’m not trying to impugn her at all.”

He had been been struggling with whether to vote for the death penalty. The woman sat down next to him in the courtroom at lunch. She said, “If it makes you feel any better (Adams) had been in prison on a rape charge,” the male juror testified during the June hearing.

A juror knowing information about a defendant’s prior criminal record outside of court could be considered juror misconduct and could be grounds for a defendant getting a new trial.

“Our justice system only works when everybody follows the rules,” the male juror told The Vindicator. He said he doesn’t know how the female juror learned that information, but he knows how easy it would be for someone to acquire information like that.

He recalled that his wife once asked him something around the time of the trial, and he stopped her. He asked if it was about the trial. When she said yes, he told her: “Don’t tell me about it.”

The male juror said he did not know about Adams’ prior record before he voted to convict Adams and still did not know about Adams’ prior record before he voted for the death penalty.

“In the final analysis, I felt (Adams) was guilty,” he said.

He also stands by his decision to recommend the death penalty, he said. In fact, the male juror said that when the Mahoning County Prosecutor’s Office called to tell him the judge had ruled against giving Adams a new trial, he said he was glad.

RULING

Judge Anthony Donofrio of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court ruled that he found no credible evidence that juror misconduct took place during the 2008 trial, and found that the 14 other jurors who testified were more credible than the male juror.

The judge concluded that Adams, 65, who is serving a 20-years-to-life prison sentence for the murder of Tenney should not get a new trial. Tenney, 19, a Youngstown State University student from Ashtabula, was Adams’ upstairs neighbor in an Ohio Avenue duplex.

Donofrio’s ruling states that during testimony in his courtroom in June, only the male juror among 15 jurors who testified remembered any conversation among jurors that suggested that anyone knew Adams had been convicted of rape prior to Adams’ 2008 trial.

The ruling states that Donofrio found “all of the testimony consistent, except for that of” the male juror.

He notes there was a “direct conflict between” the male juror’s recollection of a female juror telling him just before the death penalty verdict was read that Adams had been in prison previously for rape, and the recollection of the female juror.

The ruling states the judge found that “while (he) does not find that (the male juror’s) testimony was necessarily intentionally dishonest, it does not comport with the memories of his fellow jurors.” The judge said he found the testimony of the female juror “more credible” than the male juror’s testimony.

He concluded that “Adams’ prior conviction was not considered or even discovered during deliberations” on whether Adams was guilty or innocent.

And, he found that the information about Adams’ prior conviction “was learned after the verdict was delivered and the jury was officially discharged from its duties. For these reasons, the court hereby finds the claims of juror bias are unsubstantiated.”

TELLING THE TRUTH

The male juror said he did not approach anyone to tell them about the female juror’s remarks at the end of the trial, but the late Judge Tim Franken, who presided over the trial, told the jurors to expect attorneys to approach them after the trial.

When attorneys approached him, he told them about the conversation with the female juror at lunch. He said attorneys asked him for more information later and he preferred not to provide it, but he did.

He said it is part of his personality that, “If you ask me a question, I will tell the truth.”

He added that it is “just common sense” that he told the truth about the remarks the female juror made to him. “Why would I make this up?”

Adams’ attorneys have a couple of weeks to announce whether they will appeal Donofrio’s ruling.

The male juror also testified in June to being told something 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.

Donofrio’s ruling states the judge found that based on all of the testimony, it would be reasonable to infer that the “dying to tell you” remark was made to the male juror after all phases of the trial and penalty phase were complete.

The Ohio Public Defender’s Office, which represented Adams at the June hearing, said recently it had no comment on whether it would appeal Donofrio’s ruling.