Pike County massacre: George Wagner IV wants new trial (2024)

Published: Jun. 12, 2024 at 11:40 AM EDT

WAVERLY, Ohio (WXIX) - One of the Wagner family members convicted of killing eight people in southern Ohio in 2016 wants a new trial.

Pike County Common Pleas Court allowed state prosecutors to make several errors during George Wagner IV’s three-month trial so all of his charges - including eight counts of aggravated murder, should be thrown out, his attorney alleges in a brief filed Monday.

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

Wagner IV is currently serving eight life sentences and 121 years on 16 other charges.

The life sentences are running consecutively.

The death penalty was taken off the table after his brother and mother testified against him for the state.

Wagner IV filed a notice of appeal in early 2023 but this is the first time we are seeing specific allegations of why he feels he is entitled to a new trial.

“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.”

Grube declined to comment Wednesday.

We also reached out to state prosecutors for the appeal. We will update this story once we hear back.

So far, they have not responded to Grube’s brief with a court filing of their own.

Pike County massacre: Complete trial coverage

The jury found Wagner IV guilty on Nov. 30, 2022, on all 22 charges, including eight counts of aggravated murder. They deliberated for less than a day.

The murders of eight members of the Rhoden and Gilley families are considered the state’s largest and most expensive homicide case to date.

Gov. DeWine has called the trial “one of the longest, if not the longest, trials in Ohio history.”

Estimates from state and local officials have placed the costs at nearly $4 million, all funded by the state of Ohio.

Those taxpayer-funded expenses are only going to grow as Wagner IV now appeals and his father, George “Billy” Wagner III, heads for trial next year.

Wagner IV’s lawyer for the appeal was paid $125 per hour for work before March 1 and will collect $140 per hour on or after that date “with no fee cap,” according to the most recent court order about pay for attorneys in the case.

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, 28, and their parents Angela Wagner, 52, and Billy Wagner, 51, 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.

They both took the stand and told the jury George Wagner IV planned, participated and helped cover up the slayings.

Both the state and defense agreed George didn’t shoot or kill anyone, but that’s where the similarities ended.

Prosecutors argued George was complicit in the killings and should be convicted on all charges including eight counts of murder.

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

George’s father Billy is continuing to fight the charges and will be tried next year.

A new visiting judge will oversee the upcoming trial and all other proceedings involving the Wagners.

On Tuesday, Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Sharon Kennedy appointed retired Darke County Common Pleas Court Judge Jonathan Hein.

The previous visiting judge recently completely retired due to health reasons, confirms the chief deputy clerk at Pike County Clerk of Courts.

It’s not clear yet if the change in judges at this point will delay the start of Billy Wagner’s trial.

FOX19 NOW reached out to his attorney and will update this story once we hear back.

Copyright 2022 WXIX. All rights reserved.