KENOSHA, Wis. (AP) ? David and Douglas Jensen were 8 and 3 years old respectively when their mother was poisoned and suffocated, leaving behind a note fingering her husband in her death.
Now nearly 10 years later, they are supporting their father, Mark Jensen, even writing a letter for his sentencing professing his innocence.
“We were, all of us, devastated at her loss, and the memory of him crying while holding his sons on his lap is one of my most vivid,” the pair wrote.
Judge Bruce Schroeder sentenced Mark Jensen, 48, to life in prison with no chance for parole, despite pleas from Jensen’s attorney Craig Albee to consider the sons’ wishes.
In an unusual show of emotion, Jensen’s chin quivered Wednesday as Albee read the letter from his sons. David Jensen sat in the gallery with Jensen’s wife, Kelly. Mark and Kelly Jensen were having an affair when Julie Jensen died. The two later married and had a son.
The brothers, who grew up with Kelly Jensen, said their father took care of them after the death of their “birth mother.” They described their father as supportive and loyal and said his greatest concern was his family’s well being, even during the seven-week trial. They asked the judge that their father “be eligible for parole as soon as possible.”
“We love you dad,” they wrote.
Mark Jensen trembled slightly as the sentence was read but did not cry. He had been found guilty last week of first-degree intentional homicide, a crime that carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison. Only the decision on whether he was eligible for parole was left to the judge.
The judge asked Jensen if he wished to comment before the sentence.
“No thank you, your honor,” he said.
Julie Jensen, 40, was found dead in her home on Dec. 3, 1998, after being sick for a few days. Prosecutors said she was poisoned with antifreeze and then suffocated.
Mark Jensen claimed his wife was depressed and killed herself, framing him for her death.
Schroeder said if he didn’t impose the maximum punishment, he would be cheating the victims’ friends and family.
“Your crime is so enormous, so monstrous, so unspeakably cruel, that it overcomes all other considerations,” he said.
Prosecutor Robert Jambois said he hoped the sons looked at the trial transcript one day and came to their own conclusion. He called Jensen a “true sociopath” who tormented his wife with pornographic photos and continually humiliated her for a brief affair and then wanted to move his own girlfriend into his house before his wife’s wake.
“Mark Jensen treated his wife the way some demented people torture small animals or pick the wings off flies,” Jambois said. He asked the judge to not give him a chance at parole or set a parole date “so far in the future that it’s not possible that it could be within Mark Jensen’s lifetime.”
Albee asked the judge to let the parole board hear from the Jensen’s two sons decades down the road to see whether they’d changed their minds about him. The boys were victims too, and their wishes should be heard, he said.
“He’s been an excellent father to his children,” Albee said. “Even neighbors who were extremely biased against Mr. Jensen recognized he was a loving father from all of their observations.”
Julie Jensen’s four brothers also spoke. Paul Griffin urged the judge to show no mercy.
“He showed no mercy to her children as he ignored their pleas to bring their sick mother to the hospital,” he said. “He propped her up in bed while she was barely able to breathe, barely able to speak ? for her children to see.”
Griffin called Jensen a coward.
“Killing Julie was not enough for Mark Jensen,” he said. “He further chose to spit on her grave by claiming she killed herself. He tried to erase her existence from the lives of her sons. He has continued for almost 10 years to make her children believe that she left them stranded.”