OH - 8 Family Members Murdered, Pike Co., Media, Maps & Timeline *NO DISCUSSION*

[arielilane]

Back in Waverly for hearing for Billy Wagner in Rhoden murder cases. We're meeting the third judge in the case as visiting judge Alan Corbin is fully retiring. Getting replaced by visiting judge Jonathan Hein of Darke County. Trial still on for early Jan. 2025.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1819376516146294825

We will be streaming it live on @local12
https://t.co/6C5SWfWuvk

Looks as if we might be starting soon - defense lawyers have come out and Rhoden family is brought in.


Billy Wagner now brought in wearing his orange Butler County Jail jumpsuit.


Now in session - new judge Hein on the bench. Now talking about how to get him up to speed, and how he might say things everyone already knew. Hein was in Darke County for 24 years.


"How I ended up here is beyond me ..." - just answered a call for help


"Going to take a lot of work" to get trial started on time in January 2025.


Going to have a hearing every month starting in Sept. to get ready for the trial. More might be added.


Hein says he doesn't have a lot of knowledge about evidence to be introduced ... on purpose so he can be impartial.


Judge also says he and lawyers talked about 404 b evidence ... using evidence from prior crimes to show possible character flaws etc. It was a big part of George IV trial.


Hein talks to Rhoden family survivors - asks them to go through prosecutors to get to him and not to email him or call his cell phone.

And we're done. But it appears there will be a lot on the docket in the next five months to get ready for early January 2025 trial start date.

@jamespilcher

 

[arielilane]

.#BillyWagner returned to Pike County Common Pleas court today for a brief hearing in the #PikeCountyMassacre case. Wagner is scheduled for trial in January on 22 counts, all related to the 2016 shooting deaths of seven members of the Rhoden family and one future member. 1/7


Wagner, wearing orange jail garb, entered the courtroom in Waverly at 11:41 a.m. and left at 12:02 p.m. Defense and prosecution attorneys met in chambers with visiting Judge Jonathan Hein beginning at 10 a.m. 2/7


Hein reminded Wagner, lawyers and Rhoden family in the gallery that he has scheduled monthly hearings in the case through its Jan. 6 anticipated start. "It's going to take something every month to get ready," he said. More pretrial hearings will be added as needed, he said. 3/7


Beyond that, in his first appearance in the case, Hein said he has read the indictment against Wagner but does not and should not know about what evidence both sides will present. 4/7


Hein advised Wagner and Rhodens to work through attorneys to communicate with him. Attorneys made no comments in court. 5/7


Hein is the third judge in the Wagner case. Retired from Darke County Common Pleas Court, he replaced visiting Judge R. Alan Corbin in May when Corbin retired in full. 6/7


Pike County's sitting judge, Rob Junk, recused himself from the case because he helped prosecute Wagner's son, George Wagner IV, on the same charges in fall of 2022. The younger Wagner was founded guilty on all 22 counts. 7/7

@pattinewberry

 

[arielilane]

Wednesday, September 4, 2024

@pattinewberry

George “Billy” Wagner III is once again asking for his case in the #PikeCountyMassacre case to be moved. The last defendant in the 2016 killings of a Pike County family argues he needs to be tried outside Pike County to seat "a jury untainted by pre-trial publicity.” 1/10




Publicity in the case is “so pervasive and prejudicial that an attempt to seat a jury would be a vain act,” a motion filed Tuesday in Pike County's Common Pleas Court says. A Google search on “George Billy Wagner” yields close to 1.9 million results, the filing says. 2/10


The change of venue motion suggests Columbus as a better site for Wagner’s trial, with a larger population as a jury pool and potential jurors “far-removed from the pervasive media coverage” of Wagner’s case and that of his family. 3/10


Pike County visiting Judge R. Alan Corbin rejected Wagner’s earlier change of venue motion in November 2023. Visiting Judge Jonathan P. Hein took the case this May, becoming the third judge in the case. 4/10


Hein will oversee the 18th hearing in Wagner’s case on Thursday in Pike County. Last month, he said he would soon begin dealing with pending motions. 5/10


Wagner, who has been held in the Butler County jail since his arrest in 2018, will not attend this week hearing, per order of the judge. “The pre-trial does not require the defendant’s attendance,” he said in a motion of his own. 6/10


In a related matter, Wagner’s youngest son, Edward “Jake” Wagner is now jailed in Ohio’s Gallia County, located on the West Virginia border. He was moved there from Franklin County Aug. 15. 7/10


A Franklin County booking/release document notes that the younger Wagner was to be kept separate from fellow inmate David Keith Rhoden. Seven members of Rhoden’s extended family and one future member were killed in the 2016 Pike County crimes. 8/10


The younger Wagner admitted to killing five of the eight 2016 victims and will be sentenced to an Ohio prison after his father’s trial. Billy Wagner’s older son, George Wagner IV, was convicted on the same 22 counts Billy Wagner will face in a trial set to start Jan. 6. 9/10


Billy Wagner photo by Liz Dufour,@Enquirer, who will join me for Thursday's hearing. 10/10

 

[arielilane]

Thursday, September 5, 2024

@pattinewberry

The judge in George “Billy” Wagner’s #PikeCountyMassacre case on Thursday signaled plans to move through pre-trial matters and begin the trial Jan. 6, 2025. (Photo from @Enquirer media partner Fox 19. 1/10




Visiting Pike County Common Pleas Judge Jonathan P. Hein met privately with attorneys in the case for 90 minutes to review pending motions. In a public hearing of less than 10 minutes, he asked prosecutors to return to court Oct. 7 with information on four key topics: 2/10


1.) What evidence of “other acts” (meaning other crimes or wrongdoing) they want to use in trial; 2.) who they want to testify; 3.) how many trial days they anticipate and 4.) their POV on moving the trial to another venue, which Wagner requested this week. 3/10


Hein also wants prosecution and defense attorneys to work together on questions they will put to potential jurors in the case, and both sides to winnow motions to the most “substantive and necessary.” 4/10


After the hearing, Wagner attorney Mark Collins said his client remains opposed to the use of “other acts” at trial. “What’s relevant is what happened, what happened right before and what happened right after.” 5/10


Collins said he’d also like the court to remove death as a possible penalty early in the case, in the event that Wagner is convicted. “We’re always trying to take it off the table early,” he said. 6/10


Wagner did not attend the hearing, at the judge’s direction. “There wasn’t any reason … to get him here and back,” he said, citing costs and safety. 7/10


Wagner, 53, has been jailed in Butler County since he was arrested in November 2018 and charged with 22 counts in the April 2016 shooting deaths of seven members of Pike County’s Rhoden family and one future member. 8/10

Wagner’s older son, George Wagner IV, was convicted on the same charges at the end of 2022. His younger son and wife -- Edward "Jake" Wagner and Angela Wagner -- admitted their involvement in the crimes in 2021. 9/10


Hein has set monthly hearings in the case through the anticipated Jan. 6 start. 10/10

 

[arielilane]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1833516164498264315

WAVERLY, Ohio — Attorneys for George “Billy” Wagner III, the accused mass murderer in the 2016 Rhoden family killings, were in a Pike County courtroom this week, continuing legal maneuvers ahead of his upcoming trial.

Complete article at link...

Attorneys for George “Billy” Wagner III ask for change of venue once more - Scioto Valley Guardian

Sep 6, 2024

 

[arielilane]

George “Billy” Wagner IV is back in court today in the 2016 #PikeCountyMassacre case, his 19th hearing since being charged for the eight homicides in November 2016. 1/9 (Photo by @ldufour @Enquirer)

https://twitter.com/x/status/1843293785629037002

Visiting Judge Jonathan P. Hein last month said he wants to act on motions pending in the case, filing a “notice of intent to dismiss” motion on Sept. 6. That would happen “on or after Sept. 27, unless good cause is shown,” the judge’s notice said. 2/9


Among the motions is one to change the location of Wagner’s trial, set to start Jan. 6 in Pike County. His attorneys filed that Sept. 3, arguing the potential jury pool there has been tainted by publicity surrounding the case. They made and lost the same argument in 2023. 3/9


Prosecutors opposed the earlier change of venue motion. They have yet to respond to the filing of last month. 4/9


Wagner is charged with eight counts of aggravated murder & 14 other crimes for the shooting deaths of seven members of Pike County’s Rhoden family and one future member. He was held in Butler County’s jail until Sept. 13, then moved to the Pickaway County jail in Circleville. 5/9


According to prosecutors in the case, Wagner, his wife and his two sons killed the Rhodens because they believed a granddaughter they have in common was being molested while in the care of the Rhodens. 6/9


In the fall of 2022, George Wagner IV was convicted on the same charges his father is facing. Son Edward “Jake” Wagner and wife Angela Wagner both pleaded guilty to their participation in the crimes. Jake Wagner is jailed in Gallia County and Angela Wagner in Delaware County. 7/9


As part of their deal with the state, they will testify in Billy Wagner’s trial, then be formally sentenced and moved to Ohio state prisons. 8/9


Wagner’s hearing in Pike County Common Pleas court in Waverly, Ohio, starts at 1 p.m. I’ll be on hand with @Enquirer colleague @lizdufour. Updates to come. 9/9

 

[arielilane]

Pike County massacre: George 'Billy' Wagner expected in court Monday

Updated: 12:30 PM EDT Oct 7, 2024

 

[arielilane]

Other hearings set for Nov. 6 and Dec. 16, court records show.

Pike County Massacre: George Wagner returns to court

George 'Billy' Wagner III is scheduled to go on trial in January.

www.fox19.com

 

[arielilane]

George “Billy” Wagner III should know before November whether he will face murder charges in Pike County or elsewhere, his lead attorney said today. (Billy Wagner leaves the Pike County Courthouse today. -- Photo by
@ldufour@Enquirer) 1/11

https://twitter.com/x/status/1843384470612914583

Following a hearing in the case – in which Wagner is facing 22 counts in the 2016 homicides of seven members of Pike County’s Rhoden family and one future member – Wagner attorney Mark Collins said he expects a ruling on his request for a change of venue in about two weeks. 2/11


“We need to change venues,” Collins said outside the Pike County Courthouse in Waverly, Ohio, after the hearing. “It shouldn’t be in Pike County where everybody knows the Wagner family and everybody knows the Rhoden family.” 3/11


Wagner’s attorneys maintain that media coverage of the case and earlier statements about Wagner from involved officials have created “presumed prejudice” against him. Those factors would also make it difficult to seat jurors who would be fair and impartial, they argue. 4/11


In response, Special Prosecutor Angela Canepa said publicity has diminished over the years since the crimes and the 2022 trial of Wagner’s son, George Wagner IV, on the same charges. “You’d be surprised at how many people don’t care about this case, your honor,” Canepa said. 5/11


The notion that fair jurors cannot be found from Pike County’s pool of 17,000 registered voters is an “hysterical idea,” Canepa added. 6/11


Visiting Judge Jonathan Hein pushed back on arguments from both sides. (Hein, formerly a judge in Darke County, took over Billy Wagner's case in May. -- Photo by @ldufour @Enquirer) 7/11

https://twitter.com/x/status/1843384483351023855

Hein rejected Canepa’s position that seating a jury outside of Pike County would hamper access to the trial or the crime scenes. Live streaming solves the first question and a jury can be transported to the crime scenes as needed from anywhere, Hein noted. 8/11


Hein also rejected defense attorney Kaitlyn Stevens’ argument that the trial would be delayed if jury selection began but failed in Pike County -- prompting him to change the venue then. “It’s a hollow argument in year six (of the case) to talk about 60 more days,” he said. 9/11


Wagner was “refreshed” to hear from the judge, Collins said. “The judge explained some things today for his benefit that I think he appreciated.” Wagner appeared in court for the hour-long hearing in red-orange jail apparel, with Pickaway County Jail stamped on the back. 10/11


As to Wagner’s move last month from Butler County to Pickaway, his Columbus-based attorney said “It helps us prepare for trial. It’s closer.” The next hearing in the case is Nov. 6 at 1 p.m. 11/11

 

[arielilane]

Back in Pike County for arguments on whether to move Billy Wagner’s trial in Pike County massacre case. Hearing set to begin at 1 and we’ll stream on @Local12

https://twitter.com/x/status/1843332922402844814

All lawyers now in chambers - special prosecutor just now filed her response to change of venue. Waiting for public arguments


About ready to begin
- they just brought Billy in and family is here.
Remember it's streaming on @local12
- they brought the court recorder into chambers for a few minutes to get something on the record


This is Judge Hein's third hearing since taking over the case. He's the third judge to hear Billy's case.


Statements argument now - about Billy's interview with BCI in Kroger parking lot early in investigation as well as his statement at Montana border - not going to use second one. No motion arguments needed. Now onto witness list - initial from state is 350 people.


Special Prosecutor Canepa going to issue a smaller pared down witness list by 10/14.


Defense lawyer Marc Collins says he thinks actual list will be less than 60 because they will stipulate or agree to a lot more evidence than in George Wagner IV's trial.


Now onto discussions of "other acts" evidence - not necessarily convictions but other stuff Billy and family may have done to indicate criminal intent. Was a big deal in George's trial as well


Hein explains why back in chambers beginning - helps boil it down and summarize so it helps make record cleaner and boil down to 10 minutes in open court.


Now onto change of venue - defense argues media attention is growing even since earlier hearings. Hein pushes back by asking who says this is largest case in Ohio history. Also asks "should I not at least try?”



Defense brings up fact that Hein previously moved cases out of Darke County because of sheriff's statement there. Cites statement of previous prosecutor (and now judge) after George's conviction


This is the second try of Billy's lawyers to get case moved out of Pike County. Says all these statements and attention makes it prejudicial.


Defense points out only 17k registered voters in Pike County - wouldn't fill Columbus Crew stadium. Says logistics of seating second jury in massacre case would be impossible. Would also be difficult to try and then have to move and get another courtroom elsewhere


Hein addresses Billy Wagner directly - saying not necessarily afraid of 60-90 day delay given how long it's already been.


Says this case is similar to the two Hein moved out of Darke County.


Prosecutor Canepa now arguing that we shouldn't even be here. Nov. 4 2023 argued in front of Judge Corbin - who decided to keep it in Pike Co. on Nov. 20 2023.


Canepa: even if issue raised again, state's opinion is that ship has already sailed.


Says feels disingenuous for defense to argue too much publicity and then have them talk to media after hearings


The jury pool in Pike Co more than registered voters - also use registered drivers to open up more options. Went through 164 jurors to get 70 candidates down to 12 jurors plus alternates.


Judge Hein now likening situation to OJ Simpson trial - hard to find someone who hasn't heard about it. And asks would you probe to find out what they knew was accurate.


Canepa brings up George Floyd murder trial and national attention. Hein says that's about bias not knowledge of case.


Canepa says there may be evidence in this trial not in George's trial and vice versa.


Hein says if he rules differently than previous judge and moves trial, it's not indication of previus judge Corbin's judgement.


Hein allows defense lawyer Stevens to have another statement. She says this issue would have been brought up again even if Corbin was still there.


Canepa one last point - logistics - many of the pieces of evidence including murder sites are here. Hein says not an issue.


She also brings up issue of victims' families. Says they all were in court for George's trial. Big hardship on family and also local witnesses to travel.

Hein says would pay to make it happen - this job is not always easy he says.


We expect a ruling in about two weeks… certainly before next hearing in early November @footlocker

@jamespilcher