Mark Jensen Kenosha murder trial: Jury now deliberating

KENOSHA, Wis. – Was Julie Jensen’s Death a Murder or a Suicide More Than Two Decades Ago? That must now be decided by a 12-member jury in the retrial against Mark Jensen.

Prosecutors say the evidence shows Jensen poisoned his wife Julie and suffocated her. The defense says Julie Jensen was depressed and took her own life.

“This case is tragic on so many levels. There’s depression, there’s suicide and there’s an innocent man on trial for murder,” said Jeremy Perri, defense attorney for Mark Jensen.

Now, for the second time, Mark Jensen’s fate is in the hands of a Kenosha County jury.

“Who’s at the computer at 9:40 this morning?” Kenosha County Assistant District Attorney Carli McNeill asked during her closing arguments. “We know that the defendant was not at work.”

Prosecutors say Jensen poisoned his wife with antifreeze and drugged her with Ambien. Both were found in Julie Jensen’s system.

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“Here is the defendant’s dilemma. He had hoped when he left that morning that he would come back and Julie would be dead. But he’s coming back and she’s alive,” McNeill told jurors.

Prosecutors say Jensen pressed his wife’s head into the pillow. They say internet searches late into the night and early in the morning confirm this.

“If that was hypothetically Julie Jensen on the computer, why would she delete that internet history? It’s not what you do after planting with your friends and your neighbors that your husband tries to kill you. If you want to blame your husband, you don’t erase it. But it’s what you’re doing when you’re trying to cover your tracks and cover your tracks,” McNeill said.

A former colleague testified that Mark Jensen admitted to looking for ways to kill his wife.

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“The state is wrong. We do not mean that Julie Jensen is blaming Mark Jensen for these statements about fear. Those were paranoid misperceptions of reality,” Perri said. “Julie Jensen was aware of what she was doing. She made space for herself.”

The defense said Julie Jensen had been treated for depression in the past – and saw a doctor two days before her death.

“Mark Jensen didn’t kill his wife. We know that from science. We know this from what Julie Jensen told her doctor. We know that from what Julie Jensen said when Julie Jensen said goodbye to Laura Koster,” Perri said. “Mark Jensen is innocent and we ask you for an acquittal.”

There were 16 jurors at the trial. Twelve of those jurors are now deliberating on the case – the other four are being held in case a juror needs to be replaced.

Closing speech of the state

Closing argument of the defense

refutation of the state