New trial sets man free after six years

A Blanco man who served more than six years in prison for killing his common-law wife was allowed to go free Wednesday after a jury ruled he is not guilty of murder.

After deliberating nearly 10 hours Tuesday, a Llano County jury of seven women and five men found James B. Tenny guilty only of aggravated assault and sentenced him Wednesday to five years in prison, time he had already served.

In his original trial in 1999, Tenny was found guilty of stabbing and killing Joyce Mulvey in May 1997. The judge sentenced Tenny to 65 years in prison.

Tenny contended he had acted in self-defense after his wife poured gasoline on him and tried to light him on fire.

In April 2004, U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks in Austin overturned the conviction, and in July 2005, a panel of federal judges ordered a new trial for Tenny. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the original trial was unfair because Tenny’s defense lawyer did not support his self-defense claims.

Bill Schuurman of Vinson & Elkins has represented Tenny on a pro-bono basis for five years.

Schuurman said that he was initially ”extremely skeptical” of Tenny’s self-defense story but that further research clearly showed Tenny ”had been railroaded.”

”This is justice at last for Jim Tenny, who has been living under this cloud that he’s a murderer,” Schuurman, a patent lawyer who had never handled a criminal case before, said in a statement.

Llano County Assistant District Attorney Tom Cloudt, the prosecutor for both trials, said the verdict surprised him.

”My take on it was that the evidence that was for aggravated assault was very consistent with the evidence that would have been for murder,” Cloudt said.

Tenny could not be reached for comment.

cmaclaggan@statesman.com; 445-3548