Julie Jensen murder: Timeline of 1998 antifreeze case after husband sentenced to life in prison
Rachel Schilke
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A Wisconsin man accused of killing his wife with antifreeze almost three decades ago was sentenced to life in prison without parole after being convicted for the second time in her murder.
Mark Jensen, 63, husband of Julie Jensen, was convicted in 2008 of the murder, with a judge ordering in 2021 that Jensen would receive a new trial omitting evidence used against him the first time around. After Friday, he has now received three convictions and two sentencings for the murder.
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Below is a timeline for the murder of Julie Jensen, including several years of appeals.
Timeline
Dec. 3, 1998
Julie Jensen was found murdered in her home in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin.
2002-2004
Mark Jensen was arrested and charged on March 20, 2002, with first-degree intentional homicide.
Prosecutors argued that Jensen poisoned Julie with antifreeze and drugged her with sleeping medication, before later suffocating her in their home.
In October 2003, a judge ruled that a letter Julie Jensen wrote could be used at the trial.
In the letter, she wrote that law enforcement should look at her husband should something happen to her. Prosecutors also presented a voicemail Julie left a police officer in which she expressed fear that her husband was trying to kill her.
However, a month later, the trial was delayed, with the judge later reversing his own decision in June 2004 that the letter could not be used as evidence.
In September 2004, the Kenosha Attorney General’s Office appealed the decision, bringing the matter before the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
2007
On Feb. 23, 2007, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that Julie Jensen’s letter could be used in the trial, which was later affirmed by the judge presiding over the case in April.
Jensen adamantly denied he killed his wife, with his defense attorneys arguing that Julie was depressed and killed herself after framing her husband.
2008
Jensen’s first trial began in Elkhorn, Wisconsin, on Jan. 7, 2008. A month and 14 days later, a jury found Jensen guilty and convicted him of murder after 30 hours of deliberation.
On Feb. 21, his first sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole was delivered.
2010-2017
The defense for Mark Jensen began a series of appeals for his conviction. In 2010, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals upheld the conviction, and the Wisconsin Supreme Court rejected Jensen’s petition for review in 2011.
In 2013, United States District Judge William Griesbach agreed to hear his petition and eventually overturned Jensen’s conviction and ordered his release from prison within 90 days. The state later appealed, pausing Jensen’s release.
The Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court’s decision in September 2015, ruling that the state improperly used evidence.
However, prosecutors began a second prosecution in 2017. A Kenosha County judge found that Julie’s letter was not considered testimonial, so he canceled Mark’s retrial and affirmed the original conviction, bringing Jensen’s number of convictions to two.
Defense attorneys for Jensen began appealing the second conviction.
2021
In March 2021, after appeals, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that the letter and voicemail could not be used as evidence during the trial and ordered a retrial for Mark Jensen.
2023
Jury selection began on Jan. 9, marking the start of Jensen’s second trial.
Despite the omission of the voicemail and letter, the jury found Jensen guilty of murder, convicting him for the third time in February. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the second time on April 14.
Julie’s family asked the court for life without parole for Jensen at the sentencing hearing.
“I respectfully ask the court today to show no mercy for Mark Jensen,” Paul Griffin, one of Julie’s brothers, said during his witness statement, according to CBS News. “Why, you might ask? Because he showed no mercy to his wife, my sister, Julie Jensen.”
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Kenosha County Circuit Court Judge Anthony Milisauskas said, “There’s no doubt in my mind Julie Jensen suffered for a long time,” at the sentencing.
“He could have divorced her, separated, whatever, but he chose not to do that. What he chose to do was torture her for a long time,” Milisauskas added.