Appeals Court orders new trial for Eldon man in gruesome murder

The Iowa Court of Appeals has ordered a new trial for a south central Iowa man convicted of the gruesome murder of a paraplegic. Kenny Chris Hemm of Eldon was found guilty of murdering a wheel-chair-bound paraplegic in April of 2000. Larry Pippenger was found, decapitated and dismembered, in a burning car. Hemm claims soneone else killed Pippenger, and he argued threats made by others against the victim should have been admitted into evidence during his trial. It wasn’t — and the Court of Appeals says that’s the reason Hemm gets a new trial. The state has charged Hamm killed Pippenger in his home, set fire to the house to cover up the killing, moved the body to the car and set it on fire, too. Hemm says he has two witnesses who will testify others threatened to kill the paraplegic, including one man who offered someone 10-thousand dollars to do the job. Prosecutors argued that evidence placed the victim in a bad light, because it involved revenge over drug sales gone bad.