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But delays during the first week of testimony may already be testing that timetable, according to lead prosecutor Robert Jambois.
This week lawyers plan to question several current and former Kenosha County Jail inmates, who collectively claim that Mark Jensen either confessed or plotted to silence other witnesses.
Mark Jensen, now 48, was charged with first-degree intentional homicide in 2002 in the Dec. 3, 1998 death of his wife Julie Jensen, but legal wrangling over the admissibility of evidence delayed the trial.
Prosecutors have contended for years that Mark Jensen poisoned his wife with antifreeze, although a pathologist who did the initial autopsy changed his testimony last week and said he now believes she was suffocated.
Ethylene glycol, the chemical found in antifreeze might have contributed to Julie Jensen’s death, but she died from asphyxiation, said Michael Chambliss, who performed the autopsy.
His testimony caused defense attorney Craig Albee to ask for a mistrial. Albee argued that the doctor overreached his expertise, but Kenosha County Circuit Judge Bruce E. Schroeder denied the request.
Also, last week former co-worker Edward Klug took the stand. He broke a nine-year silence this summer to claim that Mark Jensen talked about poisoning his wife about a month before she died.
Questions arose Thursday about whether assistant prosecutor Angelina Gabriele would have to testify as a defense witness. Albee insisted on the option after learning that she interviewed Jensen’s former co-worker David Nehring before court Thursday.
Nehring told prosecutors for the first time last week that Mark Jensen talked with him after a police investigator suggested to Mark that Julie Jensen was suffocated.
Mark Jensen was “very significantly and visibly shaken” when he described the theory, Nehring said.
Jambois and Gabriele apologized for the revelation.
Unless someone proves it is illegal to have her testify, Schroeder said he would allow Gabriele to take the stand.
Albee’s presentation isn’t expected to start for several weeks.
