Mark Jensen Murder Trial Day 8

Day 8 - 1/16/08
Det. John Zielsdorf called to the stand. He is in charge of the Kenosha jail phone system. Jail calls are recorded; date stamped and show the phone number called. Zeilsdorf provided the tapes of the calls that are going to be played for the jury.

Wow, they actually read the phone numbers aloud for Kelly LaBonte and Jensen's parents and Kim on TV!

The calls will probably be pretty damning if allowed before the jury.

Of course, Albee is objecting. Judge Schroeder and Able speaking very loudly at each other.

Sounds like Kelly was asked for the money and mom was going to be the conduit to get it to Kim. Does seem like neither of them really had a clue about the kidnapping of Klug.

A big smack down on Albee by Judge…objection overruled. Judge also tells Albee he's not going to argue with him.

Judge is pretty cranky with both pros and def today.

Albee has his own tapes he wants to play that show Jensen was being bullied and forced to do things he didn’t want to do. Additionally, having to pay Thompson. Albee says Jensen's voice is strained and the tapes will show he is under a lot of stress.

Next, Dr. Christopher Long on is the stand. He is the pathologist from St. Louis toxicology lab. This is the guy who lost files.

Albee doesn’t want Long to testify as he didn’t perform the tests, his staff did and that’s who Albee says need to be questioned. Judge says that Dr, Long can testify because he is here and if the lab techs need to be brought in, it can be done at a later date.

Because of the objections the jury was sent to early lunch. Wouldn’t ya think that all of these crazy objections would have been taken care of prior to the trial? This is no way to run a court!

The rest of the day, Albee “tortures” Dr. Long, the court and the audience with the repetitive line of questioning and the snide, insulting comments.

I hope Mr. Albee gets to see video of his performance. He certainly isn’t endearing himself to anyone. His style of cross-examination is just purely condescending and nasty. Watching him on cross, I was thinking of putting my head in the oven, but then realized its electric.

Tomorrow we have the last of the jailhouse snitches, Timothy Tally.

Day 7 - 1/15/08
First witness of the day is Nathaniel Clanton, another snitch, with 10 previous convictions. He is an Inmate in federal facility, presently serving for delivery of crack cocaine. He also has battery and armed robbery charges. He and Jensen were both housed at the Kenosha County Jail.

Jensen told Clanton that Thompson told him he could make a witness disappear. Clanton told Jensen that was just stupid.
Clanton states that he felt Jensen had made up his mind to take Thompson up on the offer.

So, this guy didn’t add anything to this case, but he does corroborate Thompson’s testimony.

The rest of the day, Rhonda Mitchell, the forensic computer analyst is back on the stand.

So, we find out the cops turned on the Jensen computer 12/17/07 and it possibly overwrote or deleted some files. Computer should have been write blocked first.

Albee challenges Mitchell’s CV and experience and is basically getting her to say she has no idea who, in the household was actually using the computer. Albee can, and has been very snotty with prosecution witnesses.

We start the tedious (already over-done) line-by-line examination of every single hit on the Internet. It's impossible to even report on this drivel.

I have never heard such totally boring testimony and I’m sure the jury is as tuned out as I am. Heck, I’d rather listen to 5 hours of forensic pathology testimony!

To sum up today’s proceedings, the best line of the day from my friend ritanita, “Will this go on forever? I'm going quite INSANE!”

Day 6 - Monday 1/14/08 The day of the snitch
1st witness of the day is David Thompson, currently a federal prisoner with 9 adult convictions of misdemeanors or felonies. Yikes!

The convictions include two counts of bank robbery, car theft, armed robbery and possession of drug paraphernalia. He said no one made any concessions to him for his testimony.

Thompson and Jensen were housed in the same cellblock. Thompson claims Jensen told him he was worried about a former co-worker who was going to testify against him. Jensen told him he wished Ed Klug - would "just go away."

Thompson asked what that meant and Jensen said he wanted Klug to disappear until after the trial. Thompson told Jensen he had a friend who would do it for $1,000 and Jensen agreed.

Thompson called his fiancée, Kim, and told her to get in touch with the district attorney. Thompson says he had made up the part of having a friend who could help.

Jensen was going to have his girlfriend, who was actually his current wife, Kelly LaBonte give the money to Jensen's mother, A tape is played of a jail conversation between Thompson and his fiancée. Thompson had her tell Jensen the plan was in place. Jensen got on the phone and Kim told him, "Everything is planned". Jensen responded, "Sounds good. Appreciate it." (Note: Jensen’s parents were visibly absent from the courtroom through this testimony!)

Jambois asked Thompson whether Mark Jensen discussed killing his wife.

Thompson said he found Jensen sitting on the edge of his bed one day, crying. He asked him what was wrong.

"He broke out crying and said 'I didn't mean to do it. I'm sorry,'" he said.

Defense attorney Craig Albee tried to shatter Thompson's credibility, carefully cataloging his many offenses. Thompson faces 68.5 years to life for all his crimes

The trial continued Monday afternoon with a series of neighbors who testified about Mark's nonchalance after Julie's death, his quick explanation that a drug interaction caused her death and the pile of garbage bags and women's clothes they saw outside the Jensen home in the days after Julie died.

The jury is really getting their exercise. They are sent from the courtroom when objections are being argued and believe me, there are many!

Todaystmj4.com latest report.