Who is Mark Jensen? Man found guilty again of murdering wife with antifreeze in 1998 in retrial
KENOSHA COUNTY, WISCONSIN: A Wisconsin found guilty of murdering his wife in November 1998 was found guilty yet again by a jury in his retrial. Mark Jensen allegedly poisoned his wife Julie with antifreeze and smothered her to death. A Kenosha County found Jensen guilty of homicide on Wednesday, February 1, nearly 15 years after he was first found guilty.
Julie had allegedly written a letter before her death hinting that her husband had been behaving suspiciously following a brief affair she had and that he should be the "first suspect if anything happens to her," which initially helped crack the case. However, in the retrial, the letter was not allowed to be used as a source of evidence, yet the jury still came to the conclusion that the 63-year-old was guilty of murdering his wife in the three-an-half week-long trial.
READ MORE
Olivia Atkocaitis: Teen sues adoptive parents who kept her in dungeon, used her as SLAVE for years
The Murder of Maria Hernandez: Suspect Lashawn Mackey spent 20 years in prison
Who was Mark Jensen?
Jensen allegedly poisoned Julie with anti-freeze, drugged her, and then killed her through asphyxiation inside their Pleasant Prairie home. After her murder, police found a letter from Julie which was read at the retrial by special prosecutor Robert Jambois, who led the prosecution in the original trial and was at their home on the night of Julie's murder.
"I pray I'm wrong and nothing happens. I'm suspicious of Mark's suspicious behaviors," Jambois said reading the November 1998 letter, adding, "If anything happens to me, he would be my first suspect," reported Daily Mail. "Our relationship has deteriorated to the plight; superficial. I know he's never forgiven me for the brief affair I had with that creep seven years ago," Julie wrote in the letter.
Prosecutors argued that Jensen killed his wife to make room for his mistress and that he searched the Internet for ways to make her death look like a suicide. However, the defense team argued that Julie was suicidal and tried to frame Jensen for murder. After the verdict, Jambois called Jensen a "blabbermouth" and lauded the jury's decision, adding that he was proud to have been a part of both the trials.
"I didn't know at that time it was going to take a third of my life to put Mark Jensen away. But it was worth it," Jambois told reporters, adding, "And I would do it again if the opportunity or necessity arose."
Julie's brother Larry Griffin reportedly said, "We're following through on Julie's words, desperate words that she wrote on November 21st, 1998. If anything happens to me, he would be my first suspect," he told Fox 6. He added that he hoped Julie's story could help victims of domestic abuse seek help.
Jensen is scheduled for another sentencing on April 14. He faces life in prison sans parole.
