Chaos in Pike County: Filings likely to delay final massacre trial

CINCINNATI (ENQUIRER) - Just weeks before the final trial in the 2016 Pike County massacre case is set to start, a flurry of filings has virtually assured its delay.

The filings have left the trial of George “Billy” Wagner Jr. without a known place or starting date. The trial may not have a judge either, with a request this week to remove him.

Wagner, 53, is still scheduled for trial in Pike County starting Jan. 6, facing eight counts of aggravated murder and 14 other charges for the 2016 crimes that shocked Ohio. That’s when seven members of the Rhoden family and one future member were gunned down in four different homes in the dark of night.

Filings creating confusion

Here’s a summary of the filings causing chaos and confusion in recent weeks:

• Visiting Judge Jonathan Hein took death off the table as a possible penalty for Wagner. That triggered the ire of Special Prosecutor Angela Canepa, who accused Hein of sabotaging her case against Wagner. Under earlier deals, Billy Wagner’s wife and younger son agreed to testify in his trial under a deal with the prosecution that would remove death as a possible penalty after that.
• Hein granted Wagner’s request to move the trial out of Pike County, without announcing a new venue.
• Hein said he’d revisit his position on the death penalty question at a hearing this Monday for Billy Wagner.
• Hein set formal sentencing for Wagner’s wife and younger son for their roles in the Rhoden case for Tuesday. Canepa believes that will harm her ability to compel them to testify in Billy Wagner’s case.
• Canepa appealed the judge’s position on the death penalty, with Hein agreeing that the appeal would need to be resolved before Wagner’s trial.
• An unnamed victim in the case, identified only as “T.R.,” appealed Hein’s decision to move the case out of Pike County, saying a change of venue would violate his constitutional right “to be present for the entirety of (the) trial” and be treated with fairness and respect. Tony Rhoden, brother to two of the 2016 victims, is among the victims, but T.R.’s attorney Morgan Galle declined comment on the identity of her client.

Prosecutor calls judge ‘hostile’

The most recent move in the case, filed Monday with the Ohio Supreme Court, could be the most disruptive.

Canepa submitted a request to disqualify Hein from serving as trial judge, saying he “repeatedly displayed open hostility” to her, as the state of Ohio’s attorney, and the Rhodens.

“If Judge Hein is permitted to continue to preside over these cases, neither the victims’ families nor the general public can have any confidence that the state will receive a fair trial,” she wrote.

The judge has “abandoned the role of neutral referee” in the case and instead become an advocate for Wagner’s defense, she argued.

Canepa’s request also asserts that Hein has repeatedly urged Canepa to accept a plea deal from Wagner, with terms not acceptable to the victims’ families.

Wagner, arrested in November 2018, has been jailed in Pickaway County since September. He had been in Butler County jails before that.