Smoke, Mirrors, and Murder

growth of the blood cells. Many cases of CLL are detected in routine blood tests of people with no symptoms. CLL doesn’t progress as rapidly as acute leukemia, but it was one more addition to the many physical disabilities Jensen already had.
    Sue Jensen saw the positive side of a plea agreement, agreeing that Bill would probably receive a long enough sentence that they wouldn’t have to be afraid of him any longer.
    But Bill Jensen wanted to go to trial, believing, apparently, that he would surely prevail and convince a jury of his innocence.
    With delays, it was late May 2004 before his trial began. Ironically, he and Sue were still married; her divorce action was stalled in the morass of legal filings.

Five
Trial
    Superior Court judge Richard Jones would oversee the Jensen trial. It was Judge Jones who had sentenced Gary Ridgway, the Green River Killer, to an almost endless series of life sentences for the murders of more than four dozen young women. Jones, the brother of famed musician Quincy Jones, was thoughtful and meticulous in his rulings. That was fortunate, because his wisdom would make any appeals difficult.
    James Conroy represented the defense. More often than not, Bill Jensen would appear in the courtroom in a wheelchair.
    They began on May 24, 2004. Conroy started his objections early; he was concerned about the whereabouts of Yancy Carrothers, who had not been located. He didn’t want Cheryl Snow’s opening statements to mention Yancy; in fact, since the material witness seemed to be unavailable, Conroy asked that the case against his client be dismissed in the eventuality that Yancy never appeared.
    Cheryl Snow said that Detective Cloyd Steiger had always been able to locate Yancy Carrothers and she had faith that he would find him.
    Judge Jones asked that the jury be brought in.
    Cheryl Snow began. She spoke of the emotions that had driven the defendant—William Jensen—to a “truly evil deed.” They were “fear, hatred, and greed.
    “Fear by the defendant that he was being cut off from Sue Jensen’s money. Fear by the defendant that he was facing imminent prosecution and that Sue Jensen would be a witness against him. Hate toward Sue Jensen for all that she had caused him. And finally, greed—his desire to inherit Sue Jensen’s fortune, even if that meant getting rid of everyone who stood between him and the money. That,” Snow pointed out, “was the defendant’s motivation in committing the crimes against his wife, Sue Jensen, against Sue’s sister, and against his own children.”
    The jury stared back at Cheryl Snow as she outlined twenty years of history between Bill and Sue Jensen, leading up to the almost unbelievable outrages she said Bill had committed against his family.
    Cheryl Snow and Marilyn Brenneman would alternate questioning witnesses. They had prepared a remarkably tight case, and they would bring forth all the witnesses who had seen or heard the defendant’s threats of violence and death against his wife—his comments that he understood “going postal.”
    Sue Jensen testified briefly, trying not to look into the eyes of the man she had lived with for almost a quarter century, still feeling somehow that this could not really be happening.
    The gallery looked up expectantly when Yancy Carrothers’s name was called. Yancy, a material witness, was being held in jail—to forestall the possibility that he might wander off. He didn’t seem to mind. He entered the courtroom walking with a cane; he had been in an accident. He took the witness stand with some élan, though. He knew he was something of a star.
    He explained the jail accommodations to the jurors, and he told them that after their first meeting, the defendant had asked him how he might be able to help him with his problems with his wife.
    Cheryl Snow questioned him: “During your specific conversations [with Bill Jensen], was there ever a suggestion or an agreement in regards to your taking any action towards his wife?”
    “Not until the next day. I approached his cell and said, ‘Have you thought of what you wanted done and whatnot?’ He said, ‘Yes, I’d like her sniped’—which means with a sniper rifle from a distance.”
    The witness told the jurors that he had commented to Bill that that sounded “amateur,” and he suggested that wasn’t a “professional elimination.”
    Yancy said Bill had asked if he could come up with a better plan. “I said, ‘Give me a day or two, and