Video above is from Jake Wagner’s 2021 guilty plea hearing

WAVERLY, Ohio (FOX19) - Three members of the same family who took plea deals years ago in the 2016 Pike County massacre case will finally be sentenced next week, newly filed court records show.

That includes Edward “Jake” Wagner, 32, and his mother, Angela Wagner, 54.

The visiting judge overseeing the cases, retired Darke County Common Pleas Court Judge Jonathan Hein, filed court papers earlier this week rescheduling their sentencing hearings for Friday, Jan. 3 at 10 a.m.

Angela Wagner’s mother, Rita Newcomb, also will be sentenced at that time, according to related court filings.

As part of their plea deals, Jake and Angela Wagner both testified for the state against the eldest Wagner son, George Wagner IV, at his 2022 murder trial.

Once they are sentenced, however, it’s not clear whether they will return to the stand to testify for the state again, this time against Jake’s father and Angela’s husband, George “Billy” Wagner III, 53.

FULL SECTION | Pike County Massacre

Victims killed more than 8 years ago

The victims of the April 2016 massacre were Christopher Rhoden Sr., 40; his older brother, Kenneth Rhoden, 44; his cousin, Gary Rhoden, 38; Chris Rhoden Sr.’s former wife, Dana Lynn Rhoden, 37, and their children: Clarence “Frankie” Rhoden, 20, Hanna May Rhoden, 19, Christopher Rhoden Jr., 16, and Frankie’s fiancé, Hannah “Hazel” Gilley, 20.

Two infants and a toddler were spared by the killers and left behind at the murder scenes: a 5-day-old baby girl, a 6-month-old baby boy, and a 3-year-old boy.

Prosecutors have said the motive in the murders was the custody and control of the young daughter of Jake Wagner and one of the victims he confessed to shooting in the head twice, Hanna May Rhoden, 19.

The young couple began dating when she was 13 and he was 18. She became pregnant with their daughter at 15.

They broke up in 2015 after their daughter was born in 2013.

Jake Wagner testified during his brother’s trial he didn’t want the relationship to end.

Hanna Rhoden had a second child, a baby girl, with another man and was dating another man at the time of her murder.

Her baby was just five days old when the victims were found on the morning of April 22, 2016.

Jake Wagner testified during his brother’s trial that he shot most of the victims, including Hanna Rhoden as she was propped up in bed breastfeeding her new infant.

He said on the stand he positioned her body after he shot her so she could keep breastfeeding her newborn, whose life he spared.

He also testified he picked up the shell casings and cell phones and took them.

But, according to other testimony, he missed one shell casing that investigators found under the baby’s crib.

George Wagner IV, 33, was convicted of all counts including eight counts of murder even though the state and defense both agreed he never shot anyone and Jake Wagner also testified to that.

George Wagner IV appealing conviction

George Wagner IV is currently appealing his conviction and asking that his sentence be thrown out: eight life sentences and 121 years on 16 other charges.

Jake Wagner, meanwhile, is being held at the Gallia County Jail, state and county records show.

It was not clear Thursday which county jail Angela Wagner is at.

Hein filed court documents requesting she be moved from the Ross County Jail for the sentencing hearing but she is not listed as a current inmate Thursday.

Billy Wagner’s trial was set to begin on Jan 6 but a change of venue followed by a flurry of court filings has delayed that.

He has pleaded not guilty all all 22 charges, including eight counts of aggravated murder, from the execution-style slayings of his son’s ex-girlfriend and seven of her family members in April 2016.

Two key decisions remain pending in the appeals court:

• Whether Judge Hein can dismiss the possibility of Billy Wagner facing the death penalty against the state’s wishes and without them requesting it in an official motion
• Whether he can move the trial out of Pike County against the wishes of a victim identified only in court records as “T.R.”

If and when the appeals court upholds the new venue decision, the judge has yet to announce the new location.

Jake Wagner testified he shot 5 of the 8 victims

Jake Wagner pleaded guilty in April 2021 to eight counts of aggravated murder and 15 other charges including felony conspiracy, four counts of aggravated burglary and multiple counts of tampering with evidence.

In all, Jake pleaded guilty to 23 charges.

As part of the plea deal, he agreed to a sentence of eight life sentences without parole and to cooperate with prosecutors and testify against his family members.

We are fully satisfied,” Wagner’s defense said during the hearing on April 22, 2021. “He knows he’s going to die in prison without any judicial relief.”

Jake Wagner then testified for the state the following year against his own brother.

Jake Wagner shot and killed five of the victims, including the mother of his child, Hanna May Rhoden, 19, and shot and wounded a sixth, her father Chris Rhoden Sr., according to his confession and his testimony.

Special Prosecutor Angie Canepa has said Jake confessed and apologized for the crimes. In an interview, he led investigators to the weapons and vehicles used in the killings.

‘I am more than sorry but that’s not enough’

Angela Wagner pleaded in September 2021 to conspiracy to commit aggravated murder, several counts of aggravated burglary, tampering with evidence, and other charges as part of a plea deal.

Eight counts of aggravated murder were dismissed.

The prosecution said at that time they were recommending she receive 30 years with no possibility of the death penalty.

Angela Wagner confirmed on the stand at her eldest son’s trial that her entire family, including herself, participated in the massacre. She was not present, however, when the slayings occurred, she stressed.

Jake Wagner backed that up in his testimony, saying on the stand that he and his father did all the shooting after the family plotted and planned the killings for months.

He said he had to talk his mom and brother into it.

One of George IV’s defense attorneys asked Angela at his trial if the goal of her plea deal was to try to get out of prison eventually one day and see her grandchildren.

Yes, she responded. She also testified she had regret and remorse and “I am more than sorry but that’s not enough.”

‘It’s not a good, Christian thing to lie’

Now 69, Newcomb withdrew her plea of not guilty in Pike County Common Pleas Court five years ago this month and entered a plea of guilty to an obstruction official business charge, a misdemeanor.

That crime is punishable by up to 90 days in jail, prosecutors said at the time.

She was accused of forging custody documents related to the case and then lying about it to a grand jury and to investigators.

When then-Judge Randy Deering asked Newcomb if she was coerced into pleading guilty, she responded: “It’s not a good, Christian thing to lie, so I didn’t want to do that anymore.”

One of the special prosecutors, Canepa, has said in court a handwriting expert determined Newcomb did not sign the custody documents herself.

Canepa also has said Newcomb admitted to falsely testifying before the grand jury and investigators because her daughter, Angela Wagner, told her to.

A pre-sentencing investigation was not ordered at the time of Newcomb’s plea hearing.

Judge Deering also never set her sentencing date.

He ordered Newcomb to comply with the conditions of her bond and to not have contact with any relatives in the case.

Judge Deering released her at that time on house arrest and ordered the removal of her electronic ankle monitor.

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