Jackson County Jury Finds Couple Guilty of Murder

KERN, JENSEN, BEINE, OGLEVIE

Posted By: Anne Hermann (email)
Date: 2/26/2009 at 13:06:09

Maquoketa Community-Press
October 30, 1979

Jackson County Jury Finds Couple Guilty of Murder

An Iowa City couple were convicted Thursday of murder in the first degree after a Jackson County District Court jury deliberated for three hours.

Robert and Judy Kern, both 33, were charged for their involvement in the shotgun slaying of Ady Jensen, Iowa City, at the home of his parents, the Ferdinand Jensen’s near West Branch.

Mrs. Kern was taken in the Clinton County Jail, while Mr. Kern was driven to Cedar County, where the crime occurred. The couple could receive life in prison.

According to remarks made by Lee Beine, assistant Cedar County Attorney, and court records, the story of the murder in short is as follows: On March 19, Ady Jensen, related to Mrs. Kern that she was not happy with her marriage and wanted to get rid of her husband.

Mrs. Kern told Mrs. Jensen that Mr. Kern could have that done for $50.

On March 19, the Kerns and Mrs. Jensen talked more about hiring a man named Andy Oglevie of Rockford, Ill. to do the killing.

On either March 25 or 26, Mr. Kern, who sold insurance, talked with Mrs. Jensen about taking out a $50,000 life insurance policy on her husband, without his knowledge.

Either Mr. Kern or Mrs. Jensen forged Mr. Jensen’s signature to the policy. The defense and the state disagreed on who actually forged the name.

The insurance money would then be split among the Kerns and Mrs. Jensen. Beine said the Kerns’ motive for killing Jensen was for the money. For Mrs. Jensen, her involvement was merely “A convenient way of getting rid of her husband,” he said.

Oglevie allegedly made two unsuccessful attempts to blow up Jensen’s pickup truck, one on April 9 and the other four days later.

Then on April 14, the state alleges, Oglevie unloaded two .410 shotgun shells into Jensen, shortly after he entered his parent’s house near West Branch.

Most of the above information was provided by Mrs. Jensen, and cooberated by physical exhibits such as telephone records, items of clothing, pieces of rubber gloves and a box of shotgun shells.

Late in June, Mrs. Jensen agreed to plead guilty to a lesser charge of conspiracy to commit a forcible felony.

In return for becoming the state’s star witness, she received a sentence of 10 years at the Women’s reformatory at Rockwell City.

And since the defense attorneys for the Kerns called no witnesses of their own, they tried to discredit Mrs. Jensen’s testimony in their closing remarks.

Both the state and the defense made note of Mrs. Jensen’s extra-marital affairs.

“Is it possible that Jeanne Jensen planned it and got someone other than the Kerns to do it?” asked Leon Spies, the Iowa City attorney representing Mr. Kern.

Spies said that Mrs. Kern and Mrs. Jensen were “true friends” and they had daily contact.

“This left the door open for a story. She knew the movements of the Kerns (so she could) weave them into the story, implicating the Kerns,” he said.

“She’s trying to drag down Robert Kern into what I call a terrible nightmare,” Spies said. “She was trying to get rid of a man she despised.”

William Norton, a Lowden attorney representing Mrs. Kern, said the state was trying to put together a puzzle that doesn’t fit.”

He said Mrs. Kern’s only guilt “was being a friend of Jeanne Jensen at the time.”

He said Mrs. Kern had affairs with her brother-in-law, a church vicar and Mr. Kern’s one-time employer.

He noted how Mrs. Jensen had to mark her calendar with Xs and Os to keep straight whom she was to meet.

“I never really understood that,” Norton said. “All I know was she was playing tic-tac-toe with people’s lives.

“Jeanne Jensen pulled the best deal in the world, she plea bargained to a nebulous charge for her testimony,” Norton said.

He said that it was possible that the real trigger man was the husband of someone Mrs. Jensen was having an affair with or even Mr. Kern’s former boss.

Beine, for the state, tried to discount the remarks about Mrs. Jensen by saying that she admitted to these affairs in court.

He said 10 years in prison was not such a reduced charge.

There was other evidence used in the state’s case which was damaging to the Kerns.

Beine said that the testimony revealed that when Mrs. Kern was being arrested her daughter asked her where she was being taken.

He said Mrs. Kern replied, “Mommy killed Jeanne’s husband and they’re taking her to jail.”

Concerning Oglevie, the defense attorney’s questions why he had not been charged or arrested in connection with the slaying.

Beine said the investigation was a step-by-step process, in which the state first charged Mrs. Jensen and then the Kerns.

“And Mr. Oglevie’s time has not yet come,” Beine said in his closing remarks. “When he is charged he will have a jury of his own.”

The trial was moved to Jackson County from Cedar County on a change of venue requested by the defense. They said there was too much pretrial publicity.

Much of that publicity on the Kerns came after Mrs. Jensen entered her plea and the statements she made became part of court records.

The trial started on Oct. 2. It was originally expected that it would last a month.