Wis. man sentenced to life in prison again for poisoning wife with antifreeze and smothering her
04/14/2023 12:50 pm PDT
KENOSHA, Wis. (TCD) -- A judge sentenced a 63-year-old man to life in prison without parole again after he was retried for killing his wife in 1998.
Kenosha County court records show Mark Jensen was sentenced Friday, April 14. A jury found him guilty in February of first-degree intentional homicide for fatally poisoning and smothering his wife Julie.
Jensen was first arrested in 2002 and went to trial Jan. 3, 2008. The trial lasted over a month until he was convicted Feb. 21, 2008. He was sentenced to life in prison, but Jensen and his attorneys appealed the verdict. WTMJ-TV reports the Wisconsin Supreme Court overturned his conviction in 2021 because they agreed a letter written by Julie before her death should not have been entered into evidence.
Prosecutors took him back to court in January 2023.
Jensen reportedly poisoned Julie with antifreeze over the course of several days, then smothered her at their home in Pleasant Prairie. The Kenosha News reports Jensen killed his wife amid an affair with another woman, who later became his wife. Julie reportedly previously had an affair with co-worker, and prosecutors argued he killed her out of spite.
Jensen’s attorneys, however, argued Julie committed suicide and framed her husband.
Before her death, Julie wrote a letter to her neighbor that said in part, “If anything happens to me, he would be my first suspect," referring to Jensen.
She said her husband had "never forgiven me for the brief affair I had."
Julie also wrote she would "never take my life because of my kids — they are everything to me!"
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