Pike County massacre: Judge will stay on bench for Billy Wagner’s trial

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CINCINNATI (WXIX) - Visiting Judge Jonathan Hein will stay on the bench for the trial of George “Billy” Wagner in the 2016 Pike County massacre case, court records show.

Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Sharon Kennedy determined Special Prosecutor Angela Canepa’s request to remove the judge lacked proof and therefore lacked merit, according to a copy of her decision filed in Pike County Common Pleas Court.

Canepa sought to “disqualify” Hein as the trial judge, claiming he was openly hostile and biased toward her and members of the Rhoden family.

Billy Wagner’s trial was set for Jan. 6 but is expected to be delayed though it is not officially yet due to a dizzying array of court filings including the one denied by Chief Justice Kennedy.

Canepa is still appealing the dismissal of the death penalty specification by Judge Hein in Ohio’s Fourth District Court of Appeals.

There is also the motion before the same court of appeals for a change of venue filed by an unnamed victim, identified in court records only as “T.R.” who appealed Hein’s decision to move BIlly’s trial out of Pike County.

“T.R.” alleges the change of venue violates his constitutional rights “to be present for the entirety of trial” and to be treated with fairness and respect. No one is saying if “T.R.” is Tony Rhoden, the brother of two of the massacre victims.

The judge has not selected a new location, so there is no way at this point the trial could even begin without T.R.’s motion.

“He has not made the decision yet and I’m not sure he will until we know what the court of appeals says,” Canepa tells FOX19 NOW.

53-year-old Billy Wagner is the lone member of the Wagner family still facing trial in the 2016 Pike County Massacre.

He 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.

Billy Wagner’s wife and two sons have all been convicted for their roles in the slayings of the Rhoden and Gilley families.

But only George Wagner IV is serving his prison sentence. The other two were never formally sentenced.

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 of the young daughter of Jake Wagner and one of the victims he confessed to shooting in the head twice, Hanna May Rhoden.

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.

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