Pike County massacre trial: George Wagner IV, 31, convicted in 2016 murder of 8 members of Rhoden family
PIKE COUNTY, OHIO: George Wagner IV accused of conspiracy and the brutal massacre of eight Rhoden family members in 2016 was found pleaded guilty on Wednesday, November 30. Wagner was convicted of 22 charges, including eight counts of aggravated murder, as well as further counts of aggravated burglary, tampering with evidence, forgery, and conspiracy. George Wagner IV, 31, remained “fairly stoic” as the verdicts were read aloud in the courtroom, according to WLWT.
Prosecutors said the Wagner clan had worked with his mother Angela Wagner, father George 'Billy' Wagner, and brother Edward 'Jake' Wagner, to fatally shoot the eight members of the Rhoden family “execution-style” in multiple locations near Piketon in April 2016. Relatives of the Rhoden family sobbed as the verdicts were announced. “I feel sorry for him,” Tony Rhoden, whose brother was among those killed, told reporters outside the courthouse. “Because he is human.”
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(Office of Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine)
“George Wagner is human. They just didn’t show it on that night,” he said. “It should have never happened.” Rhoden added later that the verdicts brought the family “a little bit of peace. We still have a long road to go—we will get there, because we are family,” reported Daily Beast. Initially, Wagner denied that he had any knowledge of his family's killing spree adding that he would have intervened otherwise. “I would have never let it happen,” he said on the stand, The Associated Press reported earlier this month. “One way or another, I would not have let it happen," he allegedly said, adding that “I’m ashamed to know that my family would do something like this."
Even though Wagner was not accused of shooting anyone, prosecutors claimed he participated in both the murders and their subsequent cover-ups. Wagner accompanied his brother and father during the killing rampage and later helped his brother move two of the bodies, prosecutors said. “He doesn’t have to be the person that actually pulled the trigger,” special prosecutor Angela Canepa, who previously called the case “one of the most heinous crimes in Ohio history,” told the jury in the closing arguments. Turning to Wagner, she added, “You were complicit, because you knew what was going to happen, you knew what they were going to do, and you aided and abetted them,” according to the source. George Wagner IV will be sentenced in a December 14 hearing.
(Pike County Sheriff's Office/Ohio Attorney General's Bureau of Criminal Investigation)
During the Wagner trial, it was argued that the murder stemmed from an alleged bitter custody feud involving his toddler niece that one of the victims, 19-year-old Hanna Rhoden, shared with Jake Wagner. Jake Wagner later testified in a plea deal that he had shot Hannah while she lay propped up in bed breastfeeding the newborn and that he rearranged her crumpled body so she could continue breastfeeding “in case it took a while for the bodies to be discovered,” according to WSAZ. Prosecutors said the notorious Wagner clan had spent months planning the killings and targeted only a few selective members while others were “collateral damage."
The Wagners killed Hannah, both her parents, Christopher Rhoden Sr, 40, and his ex-wife Dana Manley Rhoden, 37 along with her siblings, Christopher Rhoden Jr, 16, and Clarence Rhoden, 20. Other murder victims were Clarence’s fiancee, Hannah Gilley, 20, Christopher’s brother Kenneth Rhoden, 44, and his 38-year-old cousin Gary. Jake Wagner was the first member of the clan to admit to the killings, in order to survive the death penalty. He further added that he killed Hannah because he feared his 2-year-old daughter Sophia was being sexually abused. Wagner matriarch, Angela, pleaded guilty to helping plot the slaughter last September in a deal in which the prosecution recommend a 30-year sentence. However, Wagner patriarch Billy has pleaded not guilty and is not expected to go on trial until next year.