Lawyers: 2nd Wagner son wasn’t triggerman
Defense trying to hold off death penalty
In paperwork filed with Pike County Common Pleas Court Friday, an attorney for George Wagner IV — whose mother and brother have already pleaded guilty to killing eight members of the Rhoden family in 2016 — says his client shot and killed no one and therefore is not eligible for the death penalty.
The filing may add yet another piece to the puzzle of exactly how one of the most-horrific crimes ever committed in Ohio went down.
George Wagner’s younger brother, Edward “Jake” Wagner and his mother, 50-year-old Angela Wagner, have confessed to prosecutors, laid out for them what happened overnight on April 22, 2016 in four Pike County homes, and have agreed to testify against the rest of their family: George Wagner IV and his father, George “Billy” Wagner III.
In the paperwork filed Friday, defense attorneys Richard Nash Jr. and John Parker write that the written and recorded confessions of the others make it clear “that George Washington Wagner IV did NOT shoot and kill any of the victims.”
The attorneys call the plea deal that Jake Wagner struck “remarkable” when he admitted to personally killing five of the victims and shooting a sixth. Jake Wagner pleaded guilty to eight counts of aggravated murder and all other original charges against him on April 16, the fiveyear anniversary of the killings.
In exchange for his plea, prosecutors have dropped the possibility of a death penalty, sparing the 28-year-old his life. The agreed-upon sentence, which will be handed down later, is that he will serve eight consecutive life terms without parole, plus more than 100 years for the sentences on all the other charges.
In addition, the state agreed to drop the death penalty for the rest of Jake Wagner’s family.
Nevertheless, George Wagner IV’S attorneys want the death penalty dropped for different reasons. And they hint in the filing that they will eventually seek to have the entire case against their client dismissed “for lack of sufficient evidence.”
Shot to death in four separate homes in three locations on April 22, 2016, were Dana Manley Rhoden, 37; her ex-husband, Christopher Rhoden Sr., 40; their sons, Christopher Rhoden Jr., 16, and Clarence “Frankie” Rhoden, 20; their daughter, Hanna Rhoden, 19; Frankie’s fiancée, Hannah Gilley, 20; Kenneth Rhoden, 44, a brother of Chris Sr; and Gary Rhoden, 38, a cousin of Kenneth and Chris Sr.
Most were shot multiple times at close range while sleeping. Kenneth was shot just once, and evidence at the home showed that Chris Sr. and Gary were awake when attacked.
Jake Wagner and Hanna Rhoden had a daughter together and investigators from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation — which handled the case — said that custody and control of children was at the root of the killings.
Angela Wagner pleaded guilty this month to planning and conspiring with her family in the killings, but said she didn’t actually shoot anyone. She admitted that she knew what her family was doing when they left their home the night of the killings and discussed with them what they had done when they returned.
Prosecutors offered her a mandatory 30-year sentence in exchange for her cooperation.
Pike County Common Pleas Judge Randy Deering won’t sentence Jake and Angela Wagner until the two cases against their relatives are finished because if either Billy Wagner or George Wagner IV goes to trial, Jake and Angela Wagner must testify against them to meet the terms of their own agreements.
The information from the attorneys that George Wagner IV shot no one, coupled with his mother’s admission that she didn’t, either, would put the violence squarely on the shoulders of Jake Wagner and his father.
Under Ohio law, however, one need not be the actual killer to be charged with murder. But George Wagner IV’S attorneys lay out the argument that since their client wasn’t a triggerman, he clearly is not eligible for the death penalty.
Prosecutors have not yet responded to the new filing.
From autopsy reports and previous court filings and testimony, it has been revealed that three guns were used to shoot the eight victims, and at least two of them had homemade silencers attached.
Preliminary autopsy reports reviewed by The Dispatch in 2018 after an Ohio Supreme Court ruling allowed it showed that Christopher Sr. had been shot nine times over his body.
Everyone else was shot in the head: Dana was shot five times; Christopher Jr. was shot four times; Gary was shot three times; Hannah Gilley was shot five times; Hanna Rhoden was shot twice; Frankie, three times; and Kenneth was shot once, in the right eye.
George Wagner IV is due back in court on Oct. 25. Billy Wagner’s next hearing is scheduled for Nov. 17. hzachariah@dispatch.com @hollyzachariah