May 7th, 2021 12:05p
(WGTD)---A Kenosha judge refused to lower Mark Jensen’s $1.2 million bond Friday, meaning the Pleasant Prairie man who was convicted once of the strangulation and anti-freeze poisoning death of his wife in 2008 will likely remain behind bars at least until his second trial is over.
Mark Jensen’s attorneys had hoped to reduce bond to $300,000. But the judge in the case refused the request, citing the severity of the charge—1st Degree Intentional Homicide—and old allegations of witness tampering that were based on jailhouse conversations.
Friday's hearing before Judge Anthony Milisauskas included former Kenosha County District Attorney Bob Jambois who sat as prosecutor in the first trial. The resulting conviction was eventually thrown out because the victim’s infamous “letter from the grave” was used as evidence. In it, Julie Jensen wrote that if anything should happen to her authorities should take a look at her husband.
Although the conviction was thrown out several years ago, a new trial was delayed as a result of a series of motions and rulings.
It’s unclear just how complex the pre-trial portion of the second trial will be.
Jensen’s public defender-attorneys say they have yet to retrieve from storage all of the Jensen case files.
In court Friday, Jambois said he believes the prosecution still has a strong case, even without the letter. That’s even though jurors from the first trial told CBS’s “”48 Hours” mystery show that the letter was the lynchpin for a guilty verdict.
A status conference was scheduled June 25th.
Jensen monitored Friday's hearing by phone from jail.
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