The Defendant

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According to the criminal complaint, Mark D. Jensen is accused of first degree intentional homicide for murdering his wife, Julie Jensen in 1998. Julie was 40 at the time of her death and Mark was 39. On December 3, 1998 at 4:35 pm Pleasant Prairie Police were summoned to 9020 Lakeshore Drive in Pleasant Prairie. Sergeant Reilly asked where the victim was and Mark pointed to the bedroom. In the bedroom, Sgt. Reilly saw the deceased Julie lying in bed on her stomach with her face partially buried in a pillow. Mark wouldn’t be charged with Julie’s murder until 2002. According to then-prosecutor Angelina Gabriele, “at that point I don’t think the prosecutor was confident that he could prove that, and we’re under an ethical obligation to not bring cases forward unless we believe we can prove them beyond a reasonable doubt.”

During the three-week period preceding her death, Julie Jensen had told a variety of people who she trusted that her marriage was “in the toilet;” that she would be seeking a divorce from her husband and that she was concerned that her husband was going to try and kill her, possibly with poison. She said if anything were to happen to her, it would not be suicide, and they should suspect the defendant in the event of her death.

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She wrote a letter stating similar details that was presented in the first trial, but will not be allowed in this trial after multiple courts have ruled on the issue. Jensen’s murder conviction was reversed and he was to be tried again. With the bang of his gavel, Kenosha County Circuit Court Judge Chad Kerkman found Jensen guilty again without a trial, a move that a higher Court would later say was an error. America’s judge, The Honorable Bruce E. Schroeder, presided over the original trial back in 2007 and 2008.

Forensic toxicology reports show that Julie Jensen died as a result of ethylene glycol poisoning. Furthermore, the tests conducted on her stomach contents, kidneys, and blood and urine show that she received at least two doses and the final does was administered just shortly before her death when she would have been unconscious or at least, too weak to move or get out of bed herself. Ethylene glycol is the main ingredient in anti-freeze.

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You can read the criminal complaint here:

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You can read the Pleasant Prairie Police Report here:

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The Judge

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Kenosha County Circuit Court Judge, The Honorable Anthony Milisauskas graduated from the University of Illinois, Chicago School of Law in 1983, and was admitted into the Wisconsin bar in 1984. Judge Milisauskas was born and raised in Kenosha. Judge Milisauskas opened a law office and worked for himself until 2005. From 2001 to 2005, he was a Kenosha County Circuit Court Commissioner and a guardian ad litem. He was also a Somers Municipal Judge from 2000-2005.

Judge Milisauskas was elected in 2005 and has been re-elected ever since. To all criminal defense attorneys KCE spoke with in the Kenosha County area, Judge Milisauskas is a very fair judge and a good jurist during trials. Judge Milisauskas is married and he and his wife have five children.

The Prosecution

Former Kenosha DA, and current assistant DA in Portage County, Robert Jambois, will be the lead prosecutor in this trial. He tried this case back in 2007 and 2008. The trial was the longest in Wisconsin history, lasting for 31 days, or 6 weeks. Jambois graduated from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 1981 and was admitted to the bar the same year.

Deputy District Attorney Carli Mcneill will be sitting second chair for Jambois. She graduated from Notre Dame Law School in 2010 and passed the bar in the same year.

The Defense

Bridget Krause is the Deputy Trial Division Director at the Wisconsin State Public Defender’s Office. She graduated from Marquette Law School in 2000 and was admitted into the bar the same year.  Jeremy Perri is the regional attorney manager for the Waukesha County Public Defender’s Office and previously served as an attorney for Darryl Brooks, the convicted murderer who committed the Waukesha parade massacre. Perri graduated from The University of Wisconsin Law School in 2002 and was admitted to the Wisconsin Bar the same year. Mackenzie Renner is the regional attorney manager for the Walworth County Public Defender’s Office. She previously worked in Kenosha County. She also graduated from The University of Wisconsin Law School in 2007 and entered the Bar the same year. All three are considered talented Criminal Defense attorneys with a deal of experience in trial.

Kenosha County Eye will be present in court every day and we are one of the pool photographers. Editor, Kevin Mathewson or freelance photographer Nathan DeBruin, aka “photochad”, made famous by his photos and testimony in the Kyle Rittenhouse case, will be snapping photos each and every day of trial.