KENOSHA, Wis. (AP) — Prosecutors and attorneys for a Wisconsin man accused of killing his wife with antifreeze in 1998 delivered opening statements Wednesday in his retrial, nearly two years after a judge vacated his previous conviction.
Mark Jensen, 63, was convicted in 2008 of killing his wife, Julie Jensen, at their home in the Kenosha County village of Pleasant Prairie and was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.
But a Kenosha County judge vacated his conviction in April 2021 after the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that Jensen deserved a new trial. The court found that a letter his wife wrote incriminating him in the event something should happen to her could not be used by the prosecution.
Mackenzie Renner, one of Mark Jensen’s attorneys, gives the defense’s opening statement during the trial at the Kenosha County Courthouse on Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2023, in Kenosha, Wis. The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled in 2021 that Jensen deserved a new trial in the 1998 death of his wife Julie Jensen, who was poisoned with antifreeze. (Sean Krajacic/The Kenosha News via AP, Pool)
Jensen, who is charged with first-degree intentional homicide in his wife’s death, remains in custody on a $1.2 million cash bond, the Kenosha News reported.
READ MORE: WI v. Mark Jensen: Antifreeze Murder Retrial
Prosecutors allege that he began poisoning his wife with antifreeze in December 1998, drugged her with a sleeping medication and later suffocated her to death over a three-day period.
Jensen has maintained his innocence, with his attorneys arguing that Julie Jensen was depressed and killed herself after framing her husband.
WATCH: Antifreeze Murder Retrial: Defense Opening Statement
Kenosha County Assistant District Attorney Carli McNeill told the jury during her opening statements that prosecutors would present evidence “that the defendant murdered his wife with ethylene glycol, that this was not Julie Jensen ingesting that substance to commit suicide.”
Mark Jensen, left, and his attorney Mackenzie Renner listen as the state gives its opening statement during Jensen’s trial at the Kenosha County Courthouse on Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2023, in Kenosha, Wis. The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled in 2021 that Jensen deserved a new trial in the 1998 death of his wife Julie Jensen, who was poisoned with antifreeze. (Sean Krajacic/The Kenosha News via AP, Pool)
“She lived for her kids, and she died because the defendant murdered her,” McNeill said.
Court TV’s Trial Archives: Wisconsin v. Mark Jensen (2008)
Jensen’s defense attorneys said Julie Jensen’s infidelity and depression strained the couple’s marriage and led her to take her own life.
“What brings us here today is Julie Jensen’s suicide,” said Mackenzie Renner, Mark Jensen’s attorney. “The suicide of a woman who was in declining mental health.”
Jurors began hearing testimony from witnesses after Wednesday’s opening statements. Jensen’s trial is expected to last four to five weeks.
