Mark Jensen antifreeze murder retrial: Prosecution, defense deliver opening statements as trial ramps up
KENOSHA, Wis. (CBS 58) -- Attorneys delivered their opening statements in the retrial of the man accused of murdering his wife using antifreeze more than two decades ago as the trial ramps up on its third day.
Happening now: Opening statements begin in Mark Jensen’s retrial. He’s the man accused of killing his wife, Julie, in 1998 using antifreeze. pic.twitter.com/S7nmAtqCCr
— Victor Jacobo (@victorjacobo_) January 11, 2023
Mark Jensen is going through the second trial in the death of his wife, Julie Jensen, that happened in 1998. Mark Jensen has maintained his innocence and that his wife died by suicide. But he was convicted for homicide in 2008 as prosecutors said he poisoned his wife with antifreeze, gave her sleeping pills and suffocated her.
A letter written by Julie Jensen used as evidence during the first trial pointed to Mark Jensen as a suspect. But through an appeals process, courts deemed the letter inadmissible evidence, sparking an order for a second trial.
"In this case the evidence you're going to hear is that the defendant murdered his wife with ethylene glycol, that this was not Julie Jensen ingesting that substance to commit suicide," Kenosha County Assistant District Attorney Carli McNeill told the jury during her opening statement.
Although the letter written by Julie Jensen will be absent in this trial, the state laid out other evidence it will show in the trial that it believes will reach a guilty verdict, including internet searches from Mark Jensen and witness testimony.
"[Julie Jensen] didn't kill herself, she didn't frame her husband to make it look like a homicide, she didn't abandon her kids and try to take their father too," ADA McNeill said. "She lived for her kids, and she died because the defendant murdered her."
Mark Jensen's defense attorneys point to Julie's infidelity and depression as to what strained the marriage and led to their claim of her death by suicide.
NOW: Mark Jensen’s attorney delivers his defense’s opening statement. pic.twitter.com/xSpLMZ29ji
— Victor Jacobo (@victorjacobo_) January 11, 2023
"What brings us here today is Julie Jensen's suicide," Mark Jensen's attorney Mackenzie Renner said. "The suicide of a woman who was in declining mental health."
The state moved forward with calling its first witnesses Wednesday morning.
Some witnesses showed emotion when talking about Julie Jensen's death.
"And [Mark Jensen] goes, 'yeah, I'm sorry, she didn't make it,'" Ruth Vorwald said before breaking down into tears when recalling the moment she learned of Julie Jensen's death.
Friends and acquaintances of Julie Jensen said she was increasingly worried for her life in the time leading up to her death.
"[Julie Jensen] says, 'Well, I'd like to tell you something, I think my husband was going to kill me last weekend,'" Therese DeFazio said. DeFazio was a teacher of one of Julie Jensen's children.
The state will continue to call witnesses on Thursday. The trial is expected to last four to five weeks.