Iowa gov denies commutation for grandmother serving life for West Branch murder-for-hire

AP
8/27/20

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds has rejected a request to commute the life sentence of a 74-year-old grandmother serving a life sentence for her role in a 1979 murder-for-hire in West Branch.

The Gazette reports that Judy White has served 41 years in prison since her conviction in 1979 of conspiring to murder 39-year-old Ady Jensen of Iowa City, who was killed by a hitman at his parents’ home in West Branch.

Authorities said the plot also involved White’s husband, Robert Kern, an Iowa City insurance agent who sold a life insurance policy to the victim’s wife, Jeanne Jensen, without her husband’s knowledge. The plot involved hiring a hitman to kill Ady Jensen so that Jeanne Jensen could collect $50,000 in life insurance and split it with her co-conspirators.