[suspenseful music]
‐ It's incredibly rare for a criminal defendant
to take the stand.
It's a risk very few take.
At stake, one's freedom or even their life.
This is Todd Kendhammer.
A seemingly devoted husband and father
charged with the murder of his wife Barbara.
He's decided to take that gamble.
Could it help him convince the jury he's not guilty?
‐ Or will it come back to haunt him?
‐ Take a courtside seat with the prosecutor,
the reporter who covered the case,
the podcaster who dug deep,
and the psychologist who studied the trial.
I'm Dan Abrams, and this is "Under Oath."
‐ Raise your right hand. ‐ Do you solemnly swear?
‐ I'm being honest with everything I say to you.
‐ Do you solemnly swear‐‐
‐ The whole truth and nothing but the truth.
‐ I would like to testify.
‐ The testimony you are about to give‐‐
the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
‐ So help you God.
‐ I gave her a kiss,
and I told her that I loved her too.
I watched that video. That is not me.
It's me in the picture, but it's not me talking.
It's not right state of mind.
‐ There's blood on both your knuckles, right?
‐ It's not from punching my wife.
‐ Barbara Kendhammer was a 46‐year‐old woman,
a mother of two, and a new grandmother
when she died in 2016.
Todd Kendhammer, Barb's husband of 25 years,
was a factory worker and auto glass installer.
And a man with no history of violence
and no prior criminal record.
Now he finds himself on trial for her death.
♪ ♪
‐ Friday, September 16, 2016.
The dispatch center in La Crosse got a call
from Todd Kendhammer at about 8:06 a. m.
‐ We heard about a crash.
This one stuck out to me.
It was described, at first, as this freak accident.
‐ Todd indicated that they were driving
to put a windshield in
for somebody they worked with named Justin Heim
and then take Barb to work after that.
‐ Todd tells investigators that
as he's driving down this road,
an oncoming truck loses a pipe off of it.
And the pipe comes flying through the windshield
on the passenger's side.
‐ This was not from an overpass.
It's from an oncoming car,
and it happens in a fraction of a second.
‐ First responders rushed Barb to the hospital.
Todd talked about how he stayed
with her the whole time, holding her hand,
but the next day, she was ruled brain dead.
She died there at 46 without ever being able to wake up
or tell her side of what happened.
‐ Barb had injuries to her body that we wouldn't discover
until later, when an autopsy was done.
She had blunt force trauma to the back of her head,
not to the front of her head,
where you'd expect the pipe to hit her.
‐ And then we have to talk about
Todd's injuries, as well.
There are pictures of him with scratches, you know,
on his neck, on his chest.
‐ And his knuckles on both hands were all bloody.
‐ He said that he lunged forward, striking the glass,
in order to stop the pipe or whatever object he thought
from coming through the windshield.
‐ After weeks of searching, investigators were unable
to find evidence of the truck
Kendhammer says dropped the pipe.
‐ He was very specific about the fact
that the pipe rolled off the top of this truck.
That it hadn't bounced.
That it came straight through the windshield.
This is a very straight, flat piece of road,
and a pipe just simply can't do what he described,
given the physics of the pipe.
‐ Investigators now believe that the truck wasn't real,
and that Todd was responsible for Barb's injuries.
But that theory would require Todd
to have rendered his wife unconscious
and staged the scene to look like an accident,
all in a matter of minutes.
And investigators couldn't pinpoint
a motive for the crime.
‐ Now Kendhammer's on trial for Barb's murder.
‐ What started out looking like a tragic car accident
would soon become much more complicated.
At the end of the case, I will argue that the truth
does not support the version
that Todd Kendhammer gave to police
and does support a conviction
for first‐degree intentional homicide.
‐ He's facing life in prison if he's convicted,
and he's made a huge decision.
Todd Kendhammer will take the stand
to try to prove his innocence.
After all, he was the only witness to Barb's death.
‐ Mr. Kendhammer, I noticed on your left hand,
you wear a wedding ring.
‐ Yes.
‐ Why do you continue to wear it?
[suspenseful music]
‐ I'm married to Barb.
‐ Todd Kendhammer's on trial for the murder
of his wife Barbara.
A month prior to Barb's death, in September, 2016,
they'd celebrated their 25th anniversary.
By all accounts, their marriage was perfect.
‐ The defense's case centered around the fact
that Todd and Barb had a very happy marriage.
They even called Todd and Barb's own children to testify.
‐ How would you describe to the jury
the relationship between your mother and your father,
from your perspective?
‐ Absolutely perfect.
I tried to model my marriage after theirs.
‐ And the defense presents its own experts
who say that Todd's account of a pipe
coming through the windshield and killing Barb
is not nearly as far‐fetched as the prosecution says.
‐ Now Todd Kendhammer's seeking to prove his innocence
in the death of the woman he seemingly loved.
‐ One of the reasons why a lot of defendants don't testify
is that they're creating a situation where now
the jury's just picking one story over another,
and whichever one is more believable,
even by a little bit, they'll go with that.
So it's a big risk for defendants
to take that chance to testify.
‐ When did you meet Barb Kendhammer?
‐ I met Barb in 1986.
It was a picture book thing.
I mean, just one of these things
where you know immediately
that's the girl you want.
That's the girl I wanna talk to,
I wanna get to know this girl,
and that's the feeling that I had
the first time I met Barb.
‐ I think Todd's strategy here was to win over some sympathy
from the jury and to get them to maybe think
that there's no way he would ever hurt his other half.
This person who he spent all of his time with.
This person who he shared a life with.
‐ Did you do everything together?
‐ Yes, we did.
‐ If you had to shovel snow, what would she do?
‐ She'd be right there with me.
‐ If you had to mow the lawn, what would she do?
‐ She'd pick up the weed eater and weed it right with me.
♪ ♪
‐ Were there things you did for Barb that were unusual?
‐ Yes. ‐ What were those things?
‐ A big pet peeve of Barb's...
Was when guys stood up to pee.
And I respected her enough to sit down at home to pee.
‐ For 25 years? ‐ Yes, I did.
For 25 actually‐‐yep. 25 years.
‐ Was it your intention to drive Barb
to work that morning?
‐ Yes, it was.
‐ Did you choose to do something
on the way to taking Barb to work?
‐ Yes, we did.
‐ And what did you decide to do?
‐ We were gonna take a quick jog over highway M
and see if we could find that blue Ford pickup.
‐ From the beginning, one of the problems for Todd
was his changing explanation for exactly
where he and Barb were headed that morning.
He originally said he was going to replace
the windshield of a blue truck
belonging to a man named Justin Heim.
‐ But when Heim denied needing a windshield replacement,
Kendhammer changed his story,
saying he'd been going to see a man named Ben Pfaff.
But Pfaff also denied that,
and when Kendhammer's testimony began,
he tried, once and for all, to clarify the issue.
‐ Where were you headed that day?
‐ It was Jerry Loging.
‐ When you spoke to the police officers
and answered their questions, why'd you say Justin Heim?
‐ When I watch those tapes, that's not me.
It's me in the picture, but it's not me talking.
It's not right state of mind.
I wasn't thinking of where I was going or what I was doing.
I was thinking of Barb.
‐ His whole testimony hinged on emotion,
and any inconsistencies in his story could be explained
by how much emotion he was feeling
because his wife, who he loved so much, was dead.
‐ When you got to the hospital, was there ever a time
that you left the hospital until Barb passed away?
‐ No.
‐ Todd Kendhammer makes an incredible impression
when he takes the stand during direct.
‐ I just talked to her and held her hand
and gave her a kiss,
and I told her that I loved her, too,
and I'd always take care of her mom.
‐ His face alone is so believable.
He speaks in such a calm voice.
‐ Why did you say "I love you too"?
‐ 'Cause Barb and I knew each other so well...
♪ ♪
that we didn't say, "I love you,"
and, "I love you,"
because we always said it together.
So it was always a, "Love you too."
‐ He seems simultaneously like a child and a little, old man.
‐ Did you go home that evening?
‐ I didn't want to go home without Barb there.
‐ He seems like he doesn't know how he got there,
but he just wants to help, and juries love that.
‐ Did you take her head
and bash it against the wheel rim?
‐ No.
‐ Did you take a pipe and beat her with it in any way?
‐ No.
‐ Have you ever hit Barb?
‐ Never raised my voice to Barb.
♪ ♪
Never hit her, either.
‐ Did you love Barb? ‐ Yes.
‐ Did you love her on September 16 of last year?
‐ Yes. I still do.
‐ Mr. Kendhammer, did you ever do anything
to physically hurt Barb?
‐ No.
I never have ever
done anything to my wife.
‐ Have you ever lost your temper with her?
‐ No.
Never, ever lost my temper with Barb.
‐ Todd Kendhammer's on the stand charged
with killing his wife of 25 years.
His defense has made a strong case
about the loving marriage Todd and Barb shared,
but now, it's the prosecution's turn
to point the jury's attention where they want it:
to the possibility that Todd murdered Barb
on September 16, 2016.
‐ What I thought was really interesting
about the state's case is,
they never tried to establish motive.
Sure, Todd may have loved Barb,
but that doesn't mean he didn't kill his wife.
‐ So one of my main goals in cross‐examination
was to try to emphasize the parts of his story
that either didn't make sense
or that we had felt we caught him in a lie.
You mentioned Justin Heim.
You said you did work for him all the time, correct?
‐ I did.
‐ Those were all lies, weren't they?
‐ No.
‐ They weren't true, were they?
‐ No.
‐ Just going through all the implausibilities
or the unbelievability things, once again,
so if the jury were feeling sorry for him
or were concerned that there wasn't a motive
that they came back to that point
of what he's saying doesn't add up,
and he still doesn't have a very good explanation for it.
And now, today, you have a third story, right?
‐ No. I have the second story.
‐ Well, it wasn't Justin Heim or Ben Pfaff.
Now it's somebody named Jerry Loging?
‐ Yes.
♪ ♪
It was that all along.
‐ He didn't really have answers
to many of the prosecutors' questions.
‐ Did you talk to Jerry Loging about his truck?
‐ No.
‐ Do you know where Jerry Loging lives?
‐ Not exactly, no.
‐ There were many things like that where the prosecutor
was able to poke holes in Todd's new stories.
‐ So you were driving around looking for a person
that you hadn't talked to
and don't know where he lives, right?
‐ Correct.
♪ ♪
‐ On a day that Barbara has to go to work.
‐ Correct.
‐ Barb got to work every Friday at 8:00 a. m.
She was never late.
Her work called immediately when she was late.
‐ Do you have a reason why she wouldn't call in
when she knows she's gotta work at 8:00,
and there's no way she's gonna make it by 8:00?
‐ I don't have a reason.
‐ You don't find that odd?
♪ ♪
‐ I find a lot of things odd, yes.
‐ You have no explanation for that, though?
‐ I do not have an explanation for that, no.
♪ ♪
‐ But that dubious timeline was not the only issue
Todd had to address.
Unable to provide or even suggest a motive,
the prosecution leaned hard into questioning Todd
about both of their suspicious injuries.
‐ It was clear from our autopsy that Barb died
from blunt force trauma to the back of her head.
‐ There were these three skull‐deep lacerations
on the back of her head and neck.
That was a big red flag, especially when talking about
a pipe coming through the windshield.
‐ She also had a broken nose.
Injuries to the insides of her lips.
Scratches on her neck that might have
looked like she'd been strangled.
‐ She had a couple fingernails that were torn.
One of her neckbones was broken,
as though she had been strangled.
‐ Injuries to her hands, her arms, her legs.
We then had to focus on Todd Kendhammer
being the last person that was with her
and that saw her alive.
And then he staged a cover‐up.
There were a number of times where you tried
to manipulate the police, didn't you?
‐ Explain "manipulate."
‐ Well, the police noted scratches on your neck.
You first said that that was from working
with glass, correct?
‐ I said that, yes.
‐ Well, were these scratches from glass?
‐ No. ‐ That was a lie.
‐ It wasn't a lie. ‐ It was not true.
‐ If you're telling the jury
you said things that weren't true,
that's as good as a confession for me.
The scratches were from her trying
to get you off of her, weren't they?
‐ Nope. ‐ She was scratching your neck.
Her neck. Her nail broke. Looks like a fight, doesn't it?
‐ No. ‐ Not at all?
‐ Well, it might look like it, but it wasn't.
‐ We wanted the jurors to focus not so much on,
"Was it a good marriage or a bad marriage?"
'cause I would lose that argument.
Mr. Kendhammer, isn't it true that
you punched her and broke her nose?
‐ No.
‐ Caused bruises on her face? ‐ No.
‐ So I wanted them to focus on where I thought
I might win the argument, which is, on this day,
she died from blunt trauma to her head.
There are scratches on your neck, right?
‐ Yes, there was. ‐ She had a broken nail, right?
‐ Yes, she did.
‐ When your wife is hurt in an accident,
why would you be lying,
other than you've got something to cover up?
There's blood on both your knuckles, right?
‐ It's not from punching my wife.
♪ ♪
‐ Once cross‐examination was over,
the jury then had to weigh Todd's story.
But first, prosecution had a surprise witness.
‐ Todd Kendhammer's on trial for his wife's murder.
He's told his side of the story
and answered the prosecution's questions as best he can.
Usually, at this point, the defense rests,
and the jury deliberates.
But prosecutor Tim Gruenke has something up his sleeve.
‐ A big thing with this story was the windshield.
So he was gonna go replace a windshield for Justin Heim.
And then it was Ben Pfaff, and then it was‐‐
on the stand, it changed to Jerry Loging.
‐ But the prosecution had a surprise witness
in the form of the third guy that Todd said
he was going to meet that morning.
‐ Could you state your name? ‐ Jared Loging.
‐ And could you spell your last name?
‐ L‐O‐G‐I‐N‐G.
‐ Now, at any time in 2016, did you talk to Todd Kendhammer
or anybody else about needing a windshield for your truck?
‐ No.
♪ ♪
‐ So Todd never, ever established a concrete reason
for why they were on this road
at this time when Barb should have been at work.
‐ Look, you get a pass
if you forget the seconds before the accident,
and you forget what happened during and right afterward.
But you don't get a pass for what you planned
that morning, hours before.
And the jury really was gonna wrestle with that.
‐ Now, Mr. Kendhammer...
♪ ♪
For some reason that I can't tell you,
because he's the only one who knows,
killed his wife and then tried to cover it up
and then came into court and lied to you
to try to get away with it.
Don't let him get away with it.
♪ ♪
‐ Where is the proof that this was some intentional assault?
♪ ♪
What reason would Todd Kendhammer
ever have to harm his wife?
♪ ♪
‐ The moment before a verdict is read
is harrowing in any courtroom.
It is one of the scariest moments
that you can experience.
♪ ♪
‐ Mr. Kendhammer, if you'd please rise
for the reading of the verdict.
State of Wisconsin versus Todd A. Kendhammer.
We, the jury, find the defendant,
Todd A. Kendhammer...
♪ ♪
Guilty of first‐degree intentional homicide,
as charged in the information.
‐ If Todd Kendhammer had not taken the stand,
I believe he definitely would have been convicted.
And had they patched up those holes
during his cross examination and been able to explain
all those lies and inconsistencies,
he may have ultimately been acquitted.
‐ I think Mr. Kendhammer thought that
he could just talk to the jury
and explain that he's a good guy,
and he couldn't have done this, and leave it at that.
‐ Ladies and gentlemen, the verdict I just read,
if this is the verdict of each of you,
would you please raise your right hand?
‐ People are not all good or all bad.
None of us are as good as their best day
or as bad as our worst day.
‐ Well, the court, having heard the testimony,
will accept the jury's verdict.
Conviction on behalf of Mr. Kendhammer
on count one, first‐degree intentional homicide.
‐ I have no doubt that he did love Barbara,
but those aren't mutually exclusive.
You can be in love with somebody and still,
you know, commit a crime against them.
‐ Defendants are never forced to take the stand,
but that decision is likely
the biggest one they ever make.
For "Under Oath", I'm Dan Abrams.