Courts
Convicted murder argues for appeal in La Crosse County this week
A La Crosse County murder conviction from 2017 is being appealed in court this week.
Todd Kendhammer was found guilty of fatally beating his wife Barbara, and of faking a highway accident in which a metal pipe crashed through a car window and killed her in the fall of 2016.
La Crosse district attorney Tim Gruenke tried that case, and will take part in the appeal hearing before Judge Todd Bjerke.
Gruenke says the arguments expected from Kendhammer include that “his attorneys made a number of mistakes…not asking for a change of venue to a different location.” He also says the defense will argue that “different experts should have been called, maybe some other witnesses should have been presented.”
Kendhammer claimed that Barbara died after a pipe fell off a truck and crashed through the windshield on a road near West Salem. He’s serving a life prison term, with the first possibility of parole in 2048.
Three days have been set aside for the court hearing that begins Monday morning.