>
A Wisconsin man who was found guilty of poisoning his wife with antifreeze and suffocating her in 1998 has been found guilty once again by a jury at his retrial.
A Kenosha County jury found Mark Jensen, 63, guilty of first-degree murder Wednesday for the murder of his wife, Julie, nearly 15 years after he was first convicted.
Jensen was the prime suspect in the 1998 murder after police found a letter from Julie saying her husband had been behaving suspiciously after a brief affair he had and that he should be the officers’ first suspect if something happened to him.
While the letter was not allowed to reach the court during the retrial, the jury reached the same conclusion as in 2008 after the three and a half week trial.
Mark Jensen, 63, was convicted of first-degree murder Wednesday for the murder of his wife, Julie, who was poisoned and suffocated to death in 1998.
Although Julie’s death was thought to be a suicide, the letters revealed her suspicions against her husband and pleaded that the police should investigate him if anything happens to him.
Special prosecutor Robert Jambois, who led the prosecution in the original trial and was at the Jensens’ home the night of Julie’s murder, read the letter from the slain mother of two Wednesday that led investigators to her husband.
I pray that I am wrong and nothing happens. I am suspicious of Mark’s suspicious behavior,” Jambois said, reading the November 1998 letter. If something happens to me, he would be my first suspect.
‘Our relationship has deteriorated to the difficult situation; superficial. I know you’ve never forgiven me for the brief fling I had with that creep seven years ago.
Prosecutors argued that Jensen killed his wife to make room for his lover and that he searched the Internet for ways to make her death look like a suicide.
They said Jensen poisoned her with antifreeze, drugged her and then suffocated her inside their Pleasant Prairie home.
Jambois characterized Jensen as “chatty” and praised the jury for their decision, adding that he was proud to have worked on both trials.
“I didn’t know at the time that it was going to take a third of my life to put Mark Jensen away. But it was worth it,” Jambois told reporters. “And I would do it again if the opportunity or the need arose.”
Following the verdict, Kenosha County Assistant District Attorney Carli McNeil said, “The defendant stole Julie’s children and took her children away from her.”
Jensen’s defense chose not to speak to reporters after the retrial.
Police found Julie dead at her home in Pleasant Prairie, where she lived with her husband Jensen and their two children. Prosecutors said Jensen poisoned her with antifreeze, drugged her and then suffocated her.
Jensen didn’t react much when the jury found him guilty on Wednesday.
Julie’s brother Larry Griffin shared photos of his late sister and said his family wanted to see justice for her and the letter sharing his final thoughts.
As the judge read the jury’s verdict Wednesday, Jensen kept a straight face and reacted with little emotion.
Julie’s family was more excited, including her brother Larry Griffin, who said he wanted to make sure his sister’s killer stayed behind bars.
“We are following Julie’s words, desperate words that she wrote on November 21, 1998. If something happens to me, he would be my first suspect,” he said. fox 6.
She added that she hoped Julie’s story could help domestic abuse victims seek help.
Larry hoped that Julie’s story might inspire victims of domestic abuse to seek help.
Jambois said all the family wanted was for Julie to come back and tell her story, which was muddled when Jensen and the defense argued that she was suicidal and tried to frame him for murder.
“The tragedy of Julie Jensen is that she can’t escape gaslighting even in death, even after all this time,” McNeill told reporters.
Jensen is scheduled to appear at a sentencing hearing on April 14. He faces life in prison without parole.