Murderpedia has thousands of hours of work behind it. To keep creating
new content, we kindly appreciate any donation you can give to help
the Murderpedia project stay alive. We have many
plans and enthusiasm
to keep expanding and making Murderpedia a better site, but we really
need your help for this. Thank you very much in advance.
Mark
D. JENSEN
Classification: Murderer
Characteristics: Poisoner - Parricide
Number of victims: 1
Date of murder: December 3,
1998
Date
of arrest:March 18,
2002
Date of birth:
October 5,
1959
Victim profile: Julie
Jensen,
40 (his wife)
Method of murder: Poisoning with
anti-freeze and then suffocated
her
Location: Elkhorn, Wisconsin, USA
Status:
Sentenced to life in prison without parole
on February 26, 2008
Julie Jensen, Found Dead, Had Written "I Would Never
Take My Own Life"
By Jay Schadler and
Susan B. Miller - ABC News
Feb. 29, 2008
For
people on the outside looking in, Julie Jensen appeared
to have it all: a successful stockbroker husband, Mark,
to whom she'd been married for 14 years, two wonderful
sons and a beautiful suburban home on tony Lakeshore
Drive in Pleasant Prairie, Wis. "We all looked up to her
as being a perfect mother," said friend Kim Shaw.
"[Julie and Mark] would always be outside, always
working on some kind of project," remembered her friend
and next-door neighbor Margaret Wojt. "Just laughing and
having fun with it ... it was amazing to watch them."
But gradually, their marriage started
to unravel. Wojt's husband, Ted, told "20/20" Mark had
wanted Julie to be more sexually experimental. "She said,
'Aw, [Mark] wants me to be like these other women ...
his friends. They go to the bars, three in the morning.
They go to the strip clubs ... Drinking ... I'm not that.
I don't want it."
Friends say Julie had previously
contemplated divorce, but Wojt said Julie told her, "Mark
would kill me first, before he divorced me".
Then, on Dec.
3, 1998, 40-year-old Jensen was
discovered dead in her bed by
her husband Mark. In the early
hours of the investigation,
police said suicide was the
likely cause of death. District
Attorney Bob Jambois was at the
Jensen house that day and felt
differently.
"It didn't
look right," he said.
The family
quickly held funeral services.
"Mark was
standing five feet from her
casket laughing and joking and
acting like someone at a
cocktail party" said Vorwald.
Neighbor Carrie Ashley said, "I
would probably mourn a stranger
more than he mourned Julie."
When the
autopsy came in, it did not
confirm Jambois' suspicions and
found no evidence of foul play.
Instead, Jambois said, "It
showed nothing."
The Letter
What neither
Mark nor the investigators knew
was that Jensen had left her own
testimonial about what was going
on inside her home. Before her
death, she gave an envelope to
Ted and Margaret Wojt. She told
them that "if anything happens,
give it to the police."
The Wojts, to
whom Jensen had confided, gave
police the sealed envelope. In
it was a letter written by Julie
Jensen, accompanied by a photo
of a shopping list. Her words
were simple and shocking-
"I am suspicious of Mark's suspicious behaviors and fear for my
early demise," she wrote. "If anything happens to me, he would be
my first suspect. I would never take my life because of my kids —
they are everything to me!"
Jensen also discussed in the letter a
possible reason why her husband was harboring
hostilities towards her. She referenced a brief affair
that she had years earlier and said her husband had "never
forgiven me."
The shopping list was written by Mark
Jensen and included a list of such items as poisons and
syringes. Margaret Wojt's reaction to the letter was a
mix of sadness and anger. "I don't think you need
anything else. Just read this and you know what happened,"
she told "20/20."
Investigators viewed the contents of
the envelope as key evidence and "as Julie's last will
and testament," said Jambois.
Legal Wrangling
Mark Jensen had secrets of his own.
He had been having an affair with a married co-worker,
Kelly LaBonte, and professed his love to her in emails
that were found on his computer.
Could this have been a motive for
murder? Prosecutors thought the letter and emails would
help prove that Mark Jensen had a hand in his wife's
death.
There were
months of legal wrangling but
eventually investigators were
dealt a crushing blow. In 2002,
the letter was ruled
inadmissible. According to U.S.
law, the accused always has the
right to face his accuser.
"He can't
confront her because he killed
her," said an outraged Jambois.
Julie
Jensen's four brothers were
devastated. "We should fight to
get the letter admitted. Because
that was Julie's voice," said
Paul Griffin, a brother.
In 2007,
after years of legal disputes
which made their way to the
Wisconsin Supreme Court, Julie
Jensen's letter was finally
ruled admissible and a trial
date was set.
The Trial
Mark Jensen
was accused of murder in the
first degree, and nine years
after his wife's death he was
the focus of a high-profile
trial shown live on cable
television and the Internet.
Attorney
General Bob Jambois argued that
the man poisoned his wife with
anti-freeze and then suffocated
her so he could start a new life
with his mistress. Kelly LaBonte
moved into the Jensen household
shortly after Julie Jensen's
death, and she and Mark Jensen
were married in 2002.
The
suffocation argument was a shift
in the case that came after
Aaron Dillard, a jailhouse
informant with an extensive
criminal record, came forward.
Mark Jensen and Dillard were
housed together in a Wisconsin
jail, and Dillard said the
suspect told him that he had fed
his wife juice mixed with anti-freeze
but that "[Julie] wouldn't die
fast enough." Dillard testified
that the suspect told him his
sons saw their mother having
difficulty breathing and "wanted
to take her to the hospital. He
told me he got scared. And
that's when he rolled her over
and sat on her back, pushed her
face into the pillow."
In his
exclusive interview with "20/20"
Dillard said Mark told him a
different story initially. Mark
said "that she [Julie] poisoned
herself with antifreeze and she
tried to commit suicide, that
basically her whole family was
crazy, and she followed the same
footsteps." But then, Dillard
said, "it started spilling out"
after Dillard made a comment
about how "all of us have some
problem in our life."
"He [Mark]
was
teary-eyed
talkin'
about
his kids.
And
that's
when I
...
brought
in the
point of
we all
did what
we did
to get
here.
And then
he ...
that's
when he
came out
with and
started
telling
me more
about
what he
did."
According
to
Dillard,
Mark's
demeanor
during
his
purported
jailhouse
confession
was
unemotional.
"He
didn't
show any
sorrow
about
his wife
been
[sic]
dead. He
didn't.
About
her
passing
away.
About
any of
it."
At the
trial,
defense
Attorney
Craig
Albee
quickly
attacked
Dillard's
testimony,
and got
him to
admit he
was a
con-man
on the
stand.
Albee
said
simply
to the
jury, "You
heard
Aaron
Dillard
is a
liar.
You
cannot
believe
him
beyond a
reasonable
doubt."
Witness
after
witness
came
forward
to talk
about
Julie
Jensen's
character
and when
it was
time for
Ted Wojt
to take
the
stand he
told the
jury
that
Jensen
believed
her
husband
was
trying
to kill
her. Ted
testified
that she
had seen
him "on
poison
sites"
on the
Internet.
He
believed
she
thought
her
husband
was "trying
to make
me look
crazy,
to take
my kids."
Julie
Jensen
took her
suspicions
to the
police
before
she died
but,
without
proof,
her
husband
was not
questioned.
Julie
Jensen
had
filed
for
divorce
years
earlier
but
Julie's
brother
Paul
testified
that
Mark
told
Julie
she
would
never
see
their
sons
again if
she went
through
with it.
Defense
attorney
Craig
Albee
told the
jury
that "facts
will
prove
that
Mark
Jensen
did not
kill his
wife.
Depression
and
despair
caused [Julie]
to taken
her own
life."
Albee
continued
to tell
the jury
that
Julie
framed
Mark by
leaving
the
letter
making
it look
like he
harmed
her
because
"her
depression
and her
despair
and her
anger
and her
delusional
thinking
caused
her to
point
the
finger
at Mark."
Dr. Richard Borman, Julie's long-time physician, testified that she came to see him days before her death and that he was worried. "She was highly upset. It was burned into my mind. I'd never seen her look like that. She was distraught, almost frantic, actually," he said. Borman said Julie was concerned about her family's previous history with mental illness, particularly her mother's life-long struggle with alcoholism and serious depression. Borman prescribed her Paxil and Ambien.
Life in Prison
Ultimately, the jury did not believe that Julie committed suicide. The prosecution's case ran five weeks and the defense took just five days. Mark did not take the stand in his defense.
The jury took four days to deliberate and before a packed courtroom, the foreman read a verdict of guilty in the murder of Julie Jensen.
Albee said he's "convinced the jury reached the wrong decision" and is "hopeful that Mark will get a new trial."
On Wednesday Mark Jensen, 48, was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Currently he is in jail. In the meantime, Julie's two sons, ages 18 and 13, are being raised by his wife and former mistress.
Husband gets life without parole in 'letter from the
grave'
case
Mark Jensen sentenced for
poisoning wife with antifreeze
Victim's posthumous letter led
jurors to verdict
Defense portrayed victim as
depressed wife who committed suicide
CNN.com
February 27,
2008
The Wisconsin man
accused of poisoning his wife with antifreeze and convicted of murdering
her was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison with no chance of parole.
Mark Jensen, 48, was found guilty
Thursday in Elkhorn, Wisconsin, of
killing his wife, Julie Jensen, in
1998.
The prosecution said the murder
culminated years of torment.
"Your crime is so enormous, so
monstrous, so unspeakably cruel that
it overcomes all other
considerations," Kenosha County
Judge Bruce Schroeder said before
pronouncing the sentence.
Prosecutors contended that Jensen
poisoned his 40-year-old wife with
antifreeze and then suffocated her
in 1998, but the defense argued that
Julie Jensen was a depressed woman
who killed herself and framed her
husband.
Julie Jensen had given a neighbor a
letter pointing an accusing finger
at her husband should anything
happen to her.
She also made foreboding comments to
police and to her son's teacher,
saying she suspected her husband was
trying to kill her.
Her letter, read aloud in court,
said in part: "I pray I'm wrong +
nothing happens ... but I am
suspicious of Mark's suspicious
behaviors + fear for my early demise."
The case turned on the admissibility of the letter, which would have been considered unusable "hearsay" evidence if Schroeder had not ruled that it was a "dying declaration."In such cases, the defendant has no opportunity to face his accuser.
After the verdict, jurors told reporters that the letter gave them "a clear road map" to conviction, as one female juror phrased it.
Another female juror said he believed Mark Jensen was trying to push his wife over the edge. "He tortured Julie hoping she could be classically diagnosed as a nutcase," she said.
Several of the jurors were in the court gallery for the sentencing hearing Wednesday.
Jensen, dressed in blue jail fatigues, sat stoically while Julie Jensen's four brothers asked for the harshest possible sentence.
"I hope the court shows the same mercy and compassion that the defendant showed our sister," Patrick Griffin, the victim's youngest brother, said.
But Jensen's chin quivered and his eyes watered when his attorney read a letter from Jensen's two sons, David and Douglas.
"He never failed to support us throughout this ordeal," the sons wrote in requesting mercy for their father. "... If anyone in this world is the epitome of loyalty, it is our dad."
Jensen Sentenced To
Life Without Parole
Katie DeLong -
Associated Press
February 27, 2008
KENOSHA - A man convicted of poisoning and
suffocating his wife was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison without
parole.
"I've come to the conclusion that if I were to impose
anything less than the maximum sentence in this case, I'd feel I had
cheated the other people because your crime is so enormous, so monstrous,
so unspeakably cruel, that it overcomes all other considerations," Judge
Bruce Schroeder said.
Mark Jensen, 48, trembled slightly as the sentence
was read but did not cry. He was found guilty last week of first-degree
intentional homicide, a crime that carries a mandatory sentence of life
in prison. Only the decision on whether he was eligible for parole was
left to the judge.
Julie Jensen, 40, was found dead in her home on Dec.
3, 1998, after being sick for a few days. Prosecutors said she was
poisoned with antifreeze and then suffocated.
Mark Jensen claimed his wife was depressed and killed
herself, framing him for her death.
The couple's sons, David and Douglas Jensen,
submitted a letter before the sentencing, expressing their belief that
Mark Jensen was innocent and asking the judge to give him parole as soon
as possible. They described him holding them after their mother died and
working to support the family.
"If we ever need help, advice or just someone to talk
to, we know we can go to him for anything," said the letter read by
Jensen's attorney, Craig Albee.
Julie Jensen's four brothers also spoke.
Patrick Griffin talked about his grief over her death
and anger that Mark Jensen was able to start a successful construction
business while out on bail and remarry. He described his "disgust" at
hearing a witness testify that Mark Jensen tired of waiting for the
poison to work and suffocated his wife.
"I hope the court shows the same compassion and mercy
to the defendant that he showed to our sister Julie," he said. "So be it."
Prosecutor Robert Jambois spoke after the brothers,
saying Mark Jensen had tormented his wife with pornographic pictures and
accusations of infidelity and then moved his own girlfriend into his
house before his wife's wake.
"Mark Jensen treated his wife the way some demented
people torture small animals or pick the wings off flies," he said. He
asked the judge to not give him a chance at parole or set a parole date
"so far in the future that it's not possible that it could be within
Mark Jensen's lifetime."
Albee argued for parole, describing Jensen as a
hardworking and law-abiding citizen who was needed by his sons.
"He's always been employed. He's been an excellent
father to his children," Albee said. "Even neighbors who were extremely
biased against Mr. Jensen recognized he was a loving father from all of
their observations."
Julie Jensen had suspected for some time that her
husband of 14 years was plotting against her, so she left a note with a
neighbor to be given to police if she died.
"I pray that I am wrong and nothing happens, but I am
suspicious of Mark's suspicious behaviors and fear for my early demise,"
she wrote.
At the time, Mark Jensen was having an affair with a
woman he has since married.
Until recent years, using evidence such as the letter
in court was virtually unheard of because of constitutional guarantees
giving criminal defendants the right to confront their accusers.
But the Wisconsin Supreme Court created new evidence
rules, guided by a U.S. Supreme Court decision that laid the groundwork
for the use of Julie Jensen's letter and statements to police. The trial
judge determined last year that the letter and statements should be
allowed at trial.
Albee has said there would be an appeal in the case,
but he didn't know if he would handle it.
Attorneys are waiting for a decision in a California
case being heard by the U.S. Supreme Court in April. Legal experts say
if the court overturns that conviction, it could pave the way for Mark
Jensen to get a new trial.
In that case, Dwayne Giles was convicted of killing
his former girlfriend, Brenda Avie. The jury heard statements that Avie
made to a police officer a few weeks before her death, describing an
assault by Giles and his threat to kill her.
Giles' appeal argues Avie's statements should not
have been allowed because Giles' lawyer never had an opportunity to
cross-examine her.
Text Of Julie Jensen's Letter
The following is the
text of a letter Julie Jensen wrote and gave to a neighbor indicating
that she believed her husband was trying to kill her. According to
prosecutors, the "list" of which Jensen wrote was a recipe for poison.
Jensen wrote the letter on Nov. 21, 1998 and was
found dead in her home on Dec. 3, 1998.
Pleasant Prairie Police Department, Ron Kosman or
Detective Ratzenburg-
I took this picture + am writing this on Saturday
11-21-98 at 7AM. This "list" was in my husband's business daily
planner -- not meant for me to see. I don't know what it means, but
if anything happens to me, he would be my first suspect. Our
relationship has deteriorated to the polite superficial. I know he's
never forgiven me for the brief affair I had with that creep seven
years ago. Mark lives for work + the kids; he's an avid surfer of
the Internet...
Anyway -- I do not smoke or drink. My mother was
an alcoholic, so I limit my drinking to one or two a week. Mark
wants me to drink more with him in the evenings. I don't. I would
never take my life because of my kids -- they are everything
to me! I regularly take Tylenol + multi-vitamins; occassionally
[sic] take OTC stuff for colds; Zantac, or Immodium; have one
prescrption for migraine tablets, which more use more than I.
I pray I'm wrong + nothing happens... but I am
suspicious of Mark's suspicious behaviors + fear for my early demise.
However I will not leave [edited] + [edited]. My life's greatest
love, accomplishment and wish: "My 3 D's -- Daddy (Mark), [edited] +
[edited].
Julie C. Jensen
Wife Predicts Own Murder
Mark Jensen Charged With Poisoning Julie Jensen
With Antifreeze
Wisn.com
June 25, 2003
Wis. -- A Pleasant Prairie
man charged with poisoning and killing his wife with antifreeze was in
court Wednesday morning to ask a judge to keep his wife's statements
predicting her death from the jury.
A decision will be
announced in September, but Julie Jensen's friends talked to 12 News
about what happened in 1998.
It's been five years
since the neighbors watched the rescue squads converge on the Jensens'
Pleasant Prairie home. They waited in the driveway for word.
"I said, "You have to
tell me. These are our friends and neighbors,' and then the policeman
said, 'She didn't make it.' So it's like, it was just complete shock,"
Julie Jensen's friend Ruth said.
It made no sense --
their perfectly healthy friend, Julie, dead at age 40. A little later,
Julie's husband, Mark, walked outside to talk to the gathering of
friends.
"Mark's comment was, 'She's
gone,' and I said, 'Mark, what happened?'" Ruth said.
"It was a total shock,
just couldn't believe it," Julie's friend, Marion, said.
Four-and-a-half years
later, the girlfriends in Julie's book club are still stunned, but if
they found her death shocking, it appears Julie Jensen did not.
In the days before she
died, Julie told a neighbor and one of her son's teachers she feared her
husband planned to poison her.
Days after she died, a
neighbor handed police an envelope that contained a letter Julie had
asked him to turn it over if anything happened to her.
It said: "This 'list'
was in my husband's business daily planner. I don't know what it means,
but if anything happens to me, he would be my first suspect."
She had photographed
the list, which included the notes, "own drug supply, librium, booze,
razor blades, syringe."
Julie wrote on, "Our
relationship has deteriorated to the polite superficial. I know he's
never forgiven me for the brief affair I had with that creep seven years
ago."
The letter came as a
shock to her close friends.
"They certainly seemed
happy, but I know she didn't do it, and I'd like to think he didn't do
it," Julie's friend Carrie, said.
Prosecutors didn't
charge Julie's husband with her murder until three years later. They
said it took that long to collect the evidence they say proves he
plotted, then poisoned his wife with antifreeze.
"We just were always
waiting for an answer. We didn't want that to be the answer," Carrie
said.
A judge freed Mark
Jensen on bail, but the allegations of infidelity and murder rocked the
calm upscale lakefront community.
Investigators seized Jensen's computer,
which offered prosecutors a possible motive for Julie's murder --
evidence of an affair between Mark Jensen and his now-live-in
fiancee, e-mails indicating he'd visited her in St. Louis where
they'd met on business.
This is what an e-mail said:
Mark Jensen: "Was great just
hanging out. Got a few looks and questions about being in St. Louis
-- all covered."
Fiancee: "If you continue to be a
good boy maybe you'll get what you wish for."
Neighbors said they
started spotting the other woman at the Jensen home shortly after
Julie's death.
"She was there
overnight within two weeks because I saw her pull away at 6 a.m.," one
of Julie's friends said.
Police said more
evidence shows that Mark spent six weeks online plotting to poison Julie.
They found hits on Web sites about botulism and physician-assisted
suicide. In the week before Julie's death, they found several hits on
sites about antifreeze poisoning.
Police said when they
confronted Jensen about the antifreeze in his wife's system, he changed
his story and said Julie had been suicidal and didn't want him to call
for help as she lay dying in their bedroom.
Prosecutors now expect
suicide to be Jensen's defense -- a suggestion even Julie denies in
death.
In her note to police,
she wrote, "I would never take my life because of my kids. They are
everything to me."
Mark Jensen has spent
more than $150,000 on legal fees.
Mark Jensen Pleads Not Guilty To Killing His Wife
Friends Say Julie Jensen Feared Her Husband Would
Hurt Her
Wisn.com
June 19, 2002
Wis. -- Mark Jensen, accused
of using antifreeze to poison and kill his wife, claims he didn't do it.
Jensen didn't say anything when he appeared in
Kenosha County court Wednesday, but his lawyer said Jensen's not guilty
of killing his wife in 1998.
A neighbor said Jensen's 40-year-old wife, Julie,
gave him a sealed letter and told him to take it to police if anything
ever happened to her.
In that note, Julie said her husband would be the
prime suspect.
She also said that her husband had never forgiven her
for an extramarital affair.
Friends said Julie Jensen feared her husband was
going to poison her, saying she found documents on a home computer about
poisonous chemicals. She was found lying face down in her bed, poisoned
with antifreeze four years ago.
Mark Jensen's attorney said Julie was depressed and
may have killed herself.
Arrest Made In 1998 Poisoning Death
Mark Jensen Charged With First-Degree Homicide
Wisn.com
March 20, 2002
Wis. -- A nearly four-year
investigation into the death of a Pleasant Prairie, Wis., woman has
ended with the arrest of her husband.
Police arrested the 42-year-old
stockbroker Wednesday morning at his Kenosha home. He was charged
Wednesday afternoon with first-degree intentional homicide.
Friends and neighbors
described Julie Jensen as a stay-at-home mom devoted to family, but
according to a criminal complaint, she told friends her marriage to Mark
Jensen was in trouble, and she was worried he'd poison her.
Toxicology reports
that could prove Julie Jensen was poisoned finally all came together
earlier this week.
"It was information we
needed from the city crime lab. It was information we needed from
pathologists. It was information we needed from the toxicologists. All
of this information has filtered into our office the past several months,
and it all came together earlier this week," Kenosha County District
Attorney Robert Jambois said.
Police said Mark Jensen
poisoned his wife with a chemical commonly used in antifreeze.
According to the
criminal complaint, Julie Jensen was worried her husband would hurt her
and reportedly told several friends.
Defense attorneys said
this case is based strictly on circumstantial evidence.
