Day 13 of Mark Jensen’s retrial for the alleged antifreeze murder of his wife Julie, was completed today.
Dr. Stacey Hail of Dallas, TX is a board certified emergency room physician. There are thousands in this country. She is also a board certified medical toxicologist. There aren’t as many. Only about 300. This specialty gives her the skills and knowledge to treat living patients who have been poisoned. After Dr. Hail graduated from medical school, she had the normal 3-year residency, but also completed a 2-year toxicology fellowship. She also taught as an associate professor and does work for the United States Department of Justice. Special Prosecutor Bob Jambois described her as one of the most qualified experts he had encountered in his long career as a prosecutor. Dr. Hail was on the stand for many hours and gave detailed medical and scientific explanations of how she ruled the manner of death for Julie undetermined, as opposed to homicide, like the other doctors.
On cross examination, Dr. Hail and Jambois sparred back and forth. Jambois approached the witness stand twice, for what he said, to use the large paper-board. But he didn’t write anything down the first two times. “I don’t want to tower over you and make you feel uncomfortable,” said Jambois. “You’re not,” said Dr. Hail. Jambois got very dramatic at times and asked questions that Dr. Hail deemed nonsensical. She didn’t pull any punches. Dr. Hail was able to debunk a lot of what the prosecution’s physicians said, including time and quantity of doses, and suggested it was possible, medically, that Julie committed suicide.
Detective Lieutenant Paul Ratzburg (RET) of Pleasant Prairie Police Department took the stand again ot the direction of the defense. He answered a few questions about Julie’s day planner and the couple’s closets.
Nathaniel Clanton, a federal inmate that was temporarily being held at the Kenosha County jail, testified about Jensen’s behavior behind bars. He said that Mark let everyone read all of the police reports he had – something that the defense introduced to show how Dilard could have known the details.
Joan Wise, who worked for Jensen for a short time, testified in 2008 that Ed Klug was not trustworthy and lied. She also said that he was an attention-seeker.
Lutheran Pastor Marvin Oechler knew the Jensen and Griffin family for many years. He was asked to marry Julie and Mark around the year 1980. He testified at the 2008 trial that Julie’s mom passed out from drunkenness and went into convulsions the night before the wedding. He also testified that he counseled the couple for their marital problems and said Mark didn’t act strange during the funeral.
The defense is expected to wrap up their case as early as Tuesday or Wednesday next week. Mark and Julie’s oldest son, David will take the stand last.
*Editor’s Note. KCE Can confirm that the video of Special Prosecutor Jambois is a parody, and not genuine. He did not serenade the court during a lull in the proceedings.*
12 Responses
Sitting there all day long and can’t even give us some intermittent jury reaction notes? Cmon man!
Listened to the whole trial so far (and have spied you in the stands Kevin). Jensen is a scumbag and probably deserves everything he has got as well as what he has coming to him, however, if I were on the jury, so far my vote would be “not guilty”. Too much doubt as to if she did it herself.
Have no love for the prosecution or the judge in the case either. Prosecutor does his job very well; deflects and tries to bury the defense witnesses testimony in a shear repetition of questions whether they make sense or not. The judge may as well let the prosecutor sit in his lap as a majority of his rulings goes against valid objections brought up by defense. Also, he refers to the the prosecution as “we” along with snarky remarks in front of the jury about defense witnesses testimony such as “this is going to be the “most painful of the testimony this morning (or something like that)”.
Defense attorneys are very good and frankly, are doing a great job just as the prosecution is.
Toss-up on what it is going to be but would be too much reasonable doubt for me.
As I follow this trial, I can’t help but to remember and draw a possible parallel to another similar Kenosha murder trial where the accused was found innocent.
Julie Jensen = Starlene Ro**o
Mark Jensen = John Ro**o
You really need someone to proofread these before you post them (“she also teached…???) how about “she also taught…”? You lose a lot of credibility with your writing skills (or lack thereafter. Maybe try grammarly.com?
Proper grammer would be lackthereof, not thereafter.
Maybe try grammerly.com.
You lose a lot of credibility with your grammer police skills Cletus.
I’m glad I’m not on that jury, quite a bit of performing going on in the courtroom.
I really can’t understand why the individual sitting next to Mrs Jambois keeps munching throughout the hearing. Totally disrespectful of the process, jurors, judge and the memory of Julie Jensen.
I think you might be referring to me? I sit behind her. I ate 3 small bags of peanuts throughout the trial. I’ve been in the courtroom every day for three weeks.
Thanks for taking the the time to do this. Nothing wrong with a few nuts.
Its a bad news good news situation. Bad news is that he will most likely be found not guilty. The good news is that he at least served almost 20 years for a crime he did commit. He is socially scarred for life, because even if “acquitted” there will always be the “did he actually do it” stigma on him. Smartest thing for him would be to leave town and never come back.
Great reporting as usual Kevin. Keep up the great work. Not sure how I would bet on this case being decided. One thing to consider is the prosecution in this case and all cases have unlimited funds. Big advantage. Another observation, out of all the characters involved Mark Jensen looks the healthiest. Robert looks like death walking. He must be jabbed.
He’s definitely quadruple jabbed
5 stars on the parody of Jambo!!