Parole is unlikely for inmate who killed teen, raped girl

UTAH STATE PRISON — Board of Pardons and Parole chairman Don Blanchard said Thursday he will recommend Mark Steven Jensen spend the rest of his life in prison.

Jensen said he blames the murder and rape he's serving time for on his drug use and asked to have a future parole hearing.

But Blanchard didn't give much hope for that.

"The probability is clearly there . . . that the board may not schedule a rehearing in your case," Blanchard said.

"I totally understand that," Jensen said.

Jensen was sentenced to prison in 2003 for the murder of 17-year-old Jammie Richards and the rape of another girl.

Originally charged with aggravated murder for Richards' death, Jensen could have ended up with the death penalty.

But a plea agreement got Jensen to plead guilty to first-degree murder, said Box Elder County Attorney Amy Hugie, who prosecuted Jensen.

Jensen was sentenced to two consecutive 5-years-to-life terms for the two first-degree felonies, leaving it up to the pardons board to determine how much of that sentence Jensen spends in prison.

She said her office felt confident in the Board of Pardons in 2003, and she's confident today.

"I think the board will do what's right," she said Wednesday. "Our hope is that he's never going to see the light of day."

Jensen told Blanchard Thursday that he didn't mean to kill Richards; he only meant to scare her because he thought she was a police informant.

Blanchard said he plans to recommend that the board keep Jensen in prison for the rest of his life.

Even if the board decided to parole Jensen on some future date, Wyoming would come pick him up, Hugie said, because Jensen was convicted of child rape there.

Jensen declined to talk about that case with Blanchard because he is planning to appeal the conviction, he said.

Blanchard said Jensen will be notified of the board's decision within a few weeks.

Normally at parole hearings, a victim's family makes a statement to the hearing officer, but Richards' father lives out of state and couldn't attend.

Jensen was the first of two people charged with a capital felony in Box Elder County in the past 75 years, Hugie said.

Glenn Howard Griffin is currently charged with aggravated murder for the death of Bradley Newell Perry in 1984. Griffin was found in federal prison through a DNA match earlier this year.

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