Evan Millward
@EvanMillward
·
3h
PIKE COUNTY TRIAL: Tabitha Claytor returns to the stand. She was married to #GeorgeWagnerIV and has a son with him.
She testified yesterday to Wagner family dynamics - today calls them "strange and controlling."
Claytor says "If Angela [Wagner] made a rule, you had to follow that rule."
Angela wouldn't let her breastfeed Bulvine because he was still crying & must have still been hungry. Went against lactation specialist rec.
Special prosecutor Angela Canepa asks Claytor about special Wagner family meetings - she says she was asked to leave. She says the family would "usually argue" and then she would be told of the outcome later.
Lots of objections and back-and-forth here.
Claytor says the Wagners created a "Tabitha Wagner" Facebook account for her - that she only found out about from friends & family.
It falsely said she worked at a motel and lived in Marion.
Claytor says she was unfaithful to George while she worked at Crystal Springs (care center Frederick Wagner owns). She was pregnant with Bulvine at the time.
Restrictions got harsher: she was let go, George factory reset her phone; not allowed outside.
Claytor says she wasn't able to parent Bulvine the way she wanted. Angela would make her take a nap so she could play with him.
Wanted to get her own place with George, "so I could have a little more freedom." George wouldn't move out.
Claytor says she and George fought about cleaning the kitchen after Angela made lunch - and George slapped her.
She didn't clean because she was trying to get Bulvine to nap.
This is when she decided to leave.
Claytor says she and Angela started fighting - George came home and hit her with a belt and wouldn't let her go outside. She wanted some air to help calm down.
She bit George's armpit "and tried to rip his nuts off."
She took off out of the house.
Claytor says Angela threw a 2x4 board at her as she waked from the house - threatened to go get a gun.
George threatened to smack her if she kept screaming. He hit her in the face.
This is clearly still really painful for her - she's gotten pretty emotional.
Claytor says she ran and hid under George's truck after Angela threatened to get a gun.
She stayed there until dark - and saw multiple flashlights come out of the house. They never found her.
Claytor says she got her bicycle and rode to a gas station to call her mom.
George and Jake were in their red Suburban - tried to get her to come home.
"I told them I wasn't going to live with them if they were going to hit me."
Claytor used the gas station clerk's cell phone to call her mom, who picked up her about 1.5-2 hours later.
Declined to call police.
Says the Wagners and Hanna showed up with police. Claytor waited in the cruiser.
Wagners filed a domestic violence complaint against Claytor - alleged she "Was causing a big fuss and dragging my child across the floor."
She denies that accusation.
Claytor never pressed charges that night.
She says George gave her money to pay some fine - and the charges were eventually dropped.
George filed for divorce/dissolution a couple weeks later.
Claytor didn't have an attorney, a job, or a house at the time - so George had their son.
At first she thought they would do 50/50 shared parenting. She signs agreement thinking they would agree on visits - but that didn't happen.
Took 1 year to see son.
Claytor says she tried to see her son multiple times, but "George wouldn't let me."
George would always say 'not right now.'
First time was at a McDonalds - to drop off Christmas presents - 13 months after she left. (Nov 2014 -Dec 2015)
Claytor says there were multiple times she arrived at the Wagners' home and her son was not present. Or George would tell her last-minute that they weren't home.
Her family couldn't come with her for visits "because [George] did not like them."
Claytor says she saw her son 7-8 times, all at George Wagner's house.
Got a free consultation with an attorney in 2015 about visitation issues. He said to send George Ohio's shared parenting plan - document everything.
Claytor says when she visited her son, he did not recognize her as mom.
Especially after the murders, "George told me not to mention anything about a mother," because his cousin has just lost their mom.
Claytor says she got no advance notice the Wagners were moving to Alaska with her son - a friend told her a couple weeks afterward.
She calls George and asks why. "He said it's his son and he needs to do what's best for him."
Claytor filed for custody - and got it - in 2018. This is the year the Wagners were arrested for these crimes.
Claytor clarifies she got custody in 2018 as the result of court action, not George agreeing to it.
After one visit, OSHP pulls Claytor over after a report that she was waving a gun around and had drugs in her car. Trooper never looked after she offered to have her car searched.
She says she had never had a drug problem.
In 2016, her six-month-old daughter became unresponsive. Tests at ER showed drugs in her system.
She had been with Claytor at the Wagners' that day - daughter was only out of view when she went to the bathroom and gave her to Angela.
Claytor says the ER test found Xanax in the baby's system.
No one in her family is prescribed Xanax. She had only been to Wagner's that day.
Then, there was a Children's Services investigation. She & husband had to do a drug test a week later - negative.
Eventually, she expressed concern about the Wagners. The drug incident happened while she was trying to get custody.
Her son, Bulvine, is now in her custody.
Claytor said she would message Hanna Rhoden over Facebook - through her created account, not the fake one.
Never gave passwords or permissions to anyone else.
Canepa is showing Claytor copies of some messages between her and Hanna Rhoden.
First message she reads is from Hanna - "I just want to say I’m sorry for being a when you was down there and being rude and *advertiser censored*. That’s honestly not who I am, that’s who I was told to be"
Another message exchange is about Hanna and Jake's upcoming custody battle. Claytor writes: "e are dealing with Angela. You know how she gets when it comes to Vine and Suds [Bulvine & Sophia]."
In another lengthy exchange between Tabitha and Hanna May, Tabitha explains that George uses the fact that she and her sisters were molested at a young age by a family member as the reason he doesn't want her family around.
Back from lunch, Tabitha Claytor remains on the stand. We are still in direct for her - this has been a long one.
Claytor is still reading Facebook conversations she had with Hanna Rhoden - often commiserating over their child custody issues.
Hanna also left the Wagner house after a fight - she says Jake choked her.
link:
https://twitter.com/evanmillward
