Pike County Massacre: Ohio appeals court hears George Wagner IV’s bid for new trial

CHILLICOTHE, Ohio (WXIX) - An Ohio appeals court heard oral arguments Thursday as George Wagner IV seeks a new trial after being convicted of killing a family of eight over a child custody dispute in southern Ohio in 2016.

Wagner IV, 34, is serving eight consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole plus 121 years after a jury found him guilty of eight counts of aggravated murder and 16 other charges following a three-month trial in 2022.

The state originally sought the death penalty despite the state and his defense agreeing he didn’t shoot or kill anyone, but that sentencing option was dropped after his brother and mother, who were indicted alongside him in 2018, testified against him.

They both took the stand and told the jury he planned, participated in, and helped cover up the slayings.

Now, his attorney alleges in court filings that all convictions should be thrown out and a new trial granted because Pike County Common Pleas Court let state prosecutors make several mistakes during his trial.

“There is a reasonable probability that jurors were swayed by these errors, which demands reversal and a new trial,” wrote his attorney, Louis Grube of Cleveland.

“It is impossible to say beyond a reasonable doubt that jurors did not lose their way and convict George because they thought he was just like his criminal family members, he had probably committed the charged crimes because he had acted wrongfully and criminally in the past, he was lying consistent with his character and advice from his lawyers, and an acquittal would dishonor the victims and disappoint their family members, who had already suffered so much,” the brief states.

Highlights of allegations:

• Jurors who were more likely to sign a death penalty verdict and were “statistically more likely to enter a conviction” were selected and then the death penalty option was removed.
• “Of the jurors who did serve, two of them had direct personal connections to the victims that Jake Wagner and his father, Billy Wagner, shot to death in their sleep.”
• “For weeks at the start of the trial, the State saturated the minds of the jurors with the images of faces they had seen before in their daily lives, now gruesomely dead, and the reactions of family members who lost loved ones. When the State finally got around to admitting evidence related to George, it was largely meant to connect him to his family members through prior crimes and wrongs under the guise of establishing an ongoing scheme to commit crimes together or to show that he and his family owned a significant arsenal of firearms. Jurors were even given some evidence of firearms the State admitted had nothing to do with the case at hand, which had either been withdrawn from evidence or excluded by the trial court.”
• During closing arguments, “the State accused defense counsel of knowing that George was lying and coaching his testimony.”

Pike County massacre: Complete trial coverage

The victims of the 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 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 at 15 with Sophia.

They broke up after their daughter was born.

Wagner IV, his brother Jake Wagner, 29, and their parents Angela Wagner, 53, and Billy Wagner, 52, were all indicted on capital murder charges more than two years after the slayings, in November 2018.

Jake Wagner and Angela Wagner both pleaded guilty to their roles in 2021.

Prosecutors argued George was complicit in the killings and should be convicted on all charges.

He was the first of the four Wagners to be tried.

George’s father, Billy, is continuing to fight the charges.

His trial was to be held this year, but now it’s not clear where or when that will occur.

The visiting judge overseeing the case, Jonathan Hein, announced in court last year “the clock ran out” and began to make several key decisions that have outraged Special Prosecutor Angela Canepa and the victim’s families:

• Granting a defense motion to move Billy’s trial out of Pike County to ensure an unbiased jury
• Throwing out the possibility of the death penalty for Billy
• Sentencing Angela Wagner and Jake Wagner before they testify again for the state, this time at Billy’s trial. Angela Wagner, who did not kill anyone, was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
• Throwing out Jake’s plea agreement with the state to serve eight consecutive life sentences with no possibility of parole.
• Sentencing Jake, who admitted on the stand during his older brother’s trial to killing five of the eight victims, to 32 years to life with the possibility of parole.

To date, Canepa has filed nearly a dozen affidavits to try to get the judge kicked off the case, writing in court records that his rulings were “knowingly tipping the scale unfairly in favor of a defendant who is accused of the capital murders of eight people.”

So far, those efforts have been unsuccessful.

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