Prosecutors showed videos in court Tuesday of police interviews with a Brunswick man accused of killing his mother where he denies any knowledge of the events leading to her November 2013 disappearance and death.
The videos offered as evidence in the capital murder trial of James Tench, 30, show him speaking about his mother, Mary Tench, the same afternoon he learned she was found dead in her SUV about a half mile from their shared Brunswick home on Nov. 12, 2013.
James Tench
“You said you found her dead, so obviously something happened, so you accused me of murdering my mom, which I did not do,” Tench told police on the video.
“She called me and I was asleep and I couldn’t help her,” Tench said, referring to a call from his mother’s phone made at 11:51 the previous evening. “Do you know what it’s like? I’ve been blaming myself all day for missing that phone call.”
Tench is accused of aggravated murder, murder, aggravated robbery and evidence tampering. If convicted, he could face the death penalty.
Brunswick Det. Dean Weinhardt testified Tench became a suspect within hours of when he reported his mother missing to police. Weinhardt said the missing person’s case drew his attention initially because Tench had become a suspect in an armed robbery at a Strongsville restaurant. Tench pleaded guilty to robbery charges and is currently serving a five-year sentence in Richland Correctional Institution in Mansfield on that conviction.
Weinhardt also was alerted by the hiring of a private investigator by members of Mary Tench’s extended family less than 12 hours after James Tench said his mother failed to return home from work.
“In my 28 years in law enforcement, there had never been a private investigator involved that early on in the case,” Weinhardt said.
Sara Verespej, Mary Tench’s niece, said she was in communication with James Tench the morning of Nov. 12 and hired a private investigator at her parents’ request. She testified her parents contacted her after James Tench notified them of Mary Tench’s disappearance.
“The story that they had (from James Tench) didn’t make sense,” she said.
She testified she thought James Tench was being untruthful when he explained he didn’t hurt his mother.
“He told me he had just buried his father, why would he do anything to his mother?” Verespej said.
She said she also was suspicious when Tench told her he was washing the floors of his house because Mary Tench previously had asked him to clean them.
Several law enforcement officers previously testified to seeing a carpet cleaner in the home during Nov. 12 and Nov. 13 visits.
Verespej said she rarely interacted with James Tench and defense attorney Rhonda Kotnik suggested Verespej wouldn’t know how he responds when he is upset.
Weinhardt and fellow Brunswick Detective Brian Schmitt said James Tench’s behavior was unusual when they arrived at his house after their unsuccessful search for his mother’s car in Brunswick.
Weinhardt said Tench didn’t answer his phone any of the three times it rang during their talk and, while walking through the kitchen, said, “I forgot about that,” while looking down at two car keys, a buck knife and piece of paper.
When Weinhardt asked him if he was involved in her disappearance, the detective said Tench’s face turned red and his nostrils flared. Weinhardt testified that Tench replied in a low monotone voice, “No, I would not harm my mother.”
“It was eerie,” Weinhardt said.
Weinhardt said Tench later started talking about his mother as if she were dead, though police had not located her or her car at that time.
“He said, ‘I want to know who did this to her,’ ” and added he did not want to bury his mother, Weinhardt testified.
Weinhardt said he spoke to Tench four times Nov. 12, and he said parts of Tench’s story changed — including what time he woke up in the morning, whether he found footprints in the neighborhood and how many of the family’s four dogs escaped that morning.
Tench told police that while looking for the dogs, he found footprints in his backyard leading along the side of the house near where police later found a metal wedge. Weinhardt said Tench walked directly through the footprints, destroying them while he was showing police.
Defense attorney Kerry O’Brien pointed out police never told him not to walk through the footprints. O’Brien added that during the first visit to the Tenches’ Camden Lane home, James Tench willingly gave him a tour of the house, during which investigators didn’t find any blood. He also was cooperative during subsequent interviews, O’Brien said.
“All through this first visit he doesn’t get in the way at all,” O’Brien said.
Schmitt said he received a call about the discovery of Mary Tench’s car and the two detectives left the Tench home, telling James Tench the call was unrelated to his mother.
When they returned after finding Mary Tench’s body, they detained James Tench at gunpoint based on his previous statements and his slowness to exit the house, Weinhardt said.
Tench had left the house to purchase shampoo and a car charger while the detectives were away, Weinhardt said. When asked why he went out, Weinhardt testified Tench said he was looking for whoever might have been responsible for his mother’s disappearance. But, Weinhardt said, when he left the house police had not yet notified him of his mother’s death.
“He either did it or knew who did it at that point,” Weinhardt said.
O’Brien questioned Weinhardt’s suspicion.
“You already have it fairly implanted at that time that James was suspect No. 1,” O’Brien said.
Verespej said detectives told her they also were investigating Mary Tench’s daughter, Jennifer Swain, and her husband.
Swain will testify for the defense later during the trial, despite the objection of county Prosecutor Dean Holman.
“If the defense is going to put that young lady on the stand and accuse her of murdering her mother, we’re going to object strenuously,” Holman said.
Several items, including Tench’s phone and boots — which later tested positive for Mary Tench’s blood, according to evidence presented — were collected from the house and Tench was transported to the police station.
During two different interviews, he talked about his responsibility to care for his mother, even though evidence appeared to show they didn’t get along. He told police as a teenager he punched his father after his father slapped Mary Tench.
Tench asked Weinhardt to let him break the news of his mother’s death to his sister in a manner that O’Brien described as emotional. But Weinhardt said, for the most part, he did not believe Tench’s interviews showed real anguish.
“He was trying to show emotion but it seemed like he was having trouble doing so,” Weinhardt said.
Again, the defense reminded the jury that Weinhardt didn’t know Tench and didn’t have a basis to judge his emotion.
The trial will continue today in Judge Joyce V. Kimbler’s courtroom.