Kenneth Charles Jensen may have considered an ongoing dispute with a neighbor something close to a game between the two – until it turned deadly in 2001, a judge said Friday.
Martin Frank, 40, of Granite Falls grabbed the handlebars of Jensen’s bike and started shaking it. Until then, a years-long dispute, including taunting and name-calling on both sides, was only a war of words, Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Linda Krese said.
In sentencing Jensen to a little more than five years in prison, Krese questioned whether the man truly feared Frank, as he testified during his trial.
A jury this week convicted Jensen of second-degree manslaughter in the shooting death. Jensen, 61, shot Frank once in the chest at close range during the confrontation.
It is the third time a jury has heard the case. In 2001, a jury could not reach a unanimous decision. The following year, a jury convicted Jensen and he was sentenced to 16 years behind bars.
The conviction was thrown out following a pair of state Supreme Court decisions, and prosecutors filed new murder charges.
“Mr. Jensen took this (dispute) to another level; a level it did not need to go,” Krese said at sentencing. “It was an intentional act firing this weapon at Mr. Frank.”
Because Jensen will get credit for time already served, he’s likely to be out of prison in about five months, defense attorney Natalie Tarantino said.
Tarantino noted that Jensen has been a model prisoner and became a teaching assistant in a community college program at the Walla Walla state penitentiary.
“He made the best of his time in prison,” Tarantino told the judge.
Frank’s widow, Gia Frank, told the judge her family has been traumatized by the shooting, which occurred in front of the Frank home. She said she and her family are afraid of Jensen.
Deputy prosecutor Dave Hiltner asked the judge to impose as much time as possible, a little more than five years, and she did. Although Jensen argued that he shot in self-defense, but the jury agreed the shooting wasn’t reasonable.
Reporter Jim Haley: 425-339-3447 or haley@heraldnet.com.
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