A Wisconsin man convicted for a second time of killing his wife with antifreeze and by suffocation in 1998 was sentenced Friday to life in prison without parole. The sentencing of Mark Jensen comes a quarter century after police showed him a letter his wife left behind indicating she thought he would kill her.
A Kenosha County judge sentenced Jensen, 63, who was convicted by a jury in February of first-degree intentional homicide in the death of his wife, Julie Jensen.
Prosecutors alleged he poisoned Julie Jensen with antifreeze, and also drugged her with a sleeping medication before later suffocating her to death in their Pleasant Prairie home.
Jensen has maintained his innocence, with his attorneys arguing that Julie Jensen was depressed and killed herself after framing her husband.
At the sentencing hearing, Julie Jensen’s family asked the judge to give Mark Jensen a maximum penalty of life in prison without parole, CBS affiliate WDJT-TV reported.
“I respectfully ask the court today to show no mercy for Mark Jensen,” Paul Griffin, one of Julie Jensen’s brothers, said during his witness statement. “Why you might ask? Because he showed no mercy to his wife, my sister, Julie Jensen.”
Kenosha County Circuit Court Judge Anthony Milisauskas said during Friday’s sentencing, “There’s no doubt in my mind Julie Jensen suffered for a long time.”
“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 said, according to WISN-TV.
Jensen was first was convicted in 2008 in his wife’s slaying and sentenced to life without parole.
But a Kenosha County judge vacated Jensen’s first conviction in April 2021 after the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled he deserved a new trial. The court found that a letter his wife wrote incriminating him should something happen to her could not be used by the prosecution.
In 2008 , “48 Hours” covered the case. The episode included dramatic video of police questioning Jensen about a letter Julie wrote two weeks before her death saying she suspected he was going to kill her. Watch the video below.
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