GUILTY OH - Pike Co - 8 in Rhoden Family Murdered - 4 Wagner Family Members Arrested #86

[Chelly]

Also wondering why Judge hasn't given each attorney a time limit on closing statement.

 

[Betty P]

She's wrapping it up. Whether he was a principal offender or complicit, he knew what was going on that night. He was there the entire night, stayed the course. Didn't refuse or leave. That makes you complicit.

Physical, direct and circumstantial evidence back up all of this.

 

[Betty P]

Can someone please remind me, which order BCI thought the murders happened in? I can't find it.
TIA

I don't know. I don't think they ever said publicly. They only said that what Jake confessed to them, was different from the sequence of events they were guessing.

 

[CIA Team Member]

We haven't see jury instructions in print have we? Had to pop out for a bit today.

 

[Betty P]

Good job, Prosecutor Canepa!

 

[arielilane]

Recess for the day. Jury is expected to be in jury room tomorrow at 8:30 am ET.

Edited: spelling

 

[ColMustard]

I think she will come back after defense closing and fine tune it, she will have the last word. IYO what is missing??

I missed the start of court this morning. So I'll have to go back and see what I missed. Edit: Closing argument starts at 30 minutes into the first video from this morning. For now, there's two parts of video for today.

They're adjourning now until 8:30am.

 

[arielilane]

James' pm tweets

https://twitter.com/jamespilcher

New thread for Wagner murder trial closing arguments. Canepa says jury should regard George's testimony with grave suspicion. Says death penalty lifted because Jake lived up to his end of bargain. Leads to objection and another bench conference

Canepa asks jury to consider why George is lying. Says he lied about Frankie Rhoden being his best friend.

Calls his defense that he was trying to get away "malarkey" - says the family stuck together after the murders and they worked together in Alaska and moved all over country together.

Going through what she called the lies and inconsistencies he said at the border.

Now talking about the difference in when he went to bed at the border (12:30 a.m.) and then on the stand (10 p.m.) - and how he normally would operate on 2 hours of sleep a night. Also said at border no way anyone could leave without him knowing

Canepa: Boy is Angela a lucky guesser - she knew about truck without knowing Jake's testimony. George had said he didn't know where it went - never saw it after first day.

Biggest lie he told you - about that gun show in Columbus. Jan. 31 2015 when it happened. Why that lie? Because he cannot admit he was there with Jake when Jake bought the 1911. George also said on tape he never saw 1911 ever.

Canepa running through the charges. Now presenting arguments for venue - says Pike County is the best venue because that's where most of the murders occurred. They concede Dana's house was in Scioto County.

After nearly 4.5 hours, Canepa is done. "We respectfully request you find the guilty of all the charges in the indictment."

They're going to start early tomorrow with jury to be here at 8:30 with defense starting its closing fresh in the morning.

 

[rsd1200]

Personally I found the constant “uhmmmms” and “we will talk about that later” combined with long pauses of her looking for information make it harder to hit the point home.

By the time she interjects herself and gets back to the “original” topic she was talking about, it just makes it harder for IMOO me to connect the pieces together. Hopefully the jurors don’t need have any of that JMHO.

I honestly thought the judge gave out jury instructions. She's giving out jury instructions. I have not been able to listen, just a bit here and there. It's just sensory overload, auditory most especially. I cannot follow her. All the uhms, right, etc... I will say, I've not heard the term, "Ollie, Ollie, in-come, free" , in many a moon.

 

[ColMustard]

James' pm tweets

https://twitter.com/jamespilcher

New thread for Wagner murder trial closing arguments. Canepa says jury should regard George's testimony with grave suspicion. Says death penalty lifted because Jake lived up to his end of bargain. Leads to objection and another bench conference

Canepa asks jury to consider why George is lying. Says he lied about Frankie Rhoden being his best friend.

Calls his defense that he was trying to get away "malarkey" - says the family stuck together after the murders and they worked together in Alaska and moved all over country together.

Going through what she called the lies and inconsistencies he said at the border.

Now talking about the difference in when he went to bed at the border (12:30 a.m.) and then on the stand (10 p.m.) - and how he normally would operate on 2 hours of sleep a night. Also said at border no way anyone could leave without him knowing

Canepa: Boy is Angela a lucky guesser - she knew about truck without knowing Jake's testimony. George had said he didn't know where it went - never saw it after first day.

Biggest lie he told you - about that gun show in Columbus. Jan. 31 2015 when it happened. Why that lie? Because he cannot admit he was there with Jake when Jake bought the 1911. George also said on tape he never saw 1911 ever.

Canepa running through the charges. Now presenting arguments for venue - says Pike County is the best venue because that's where most of the murders occurred. They concede Dana's house was in Scioto County.

After nearly 4.5 hours, Canepa is done. "We respectfully request you find the guilty of all the charges in the indictment."

They're going to start early tomorrow with jury to be here at 8:30 with defense starting its closing fresh in the morning.

This is good....

Canepa: Boy is Angela a lucky guesser - she knew about truck without knowing Jake's testimony. George had said he didn't know where it went - never saw it after first day.

Biggest lie he told you - about that gun show in Columbus. Jan. 31 2015 when it happened. Why that lie? Because he cannot admit he was there with Jake when Jake bought the 1911. George also said on tape he never saw 1911 ever.

 

[TenaciousTBacon]

I missed George's interview at the border. Does anyone remember when that was? Was that played before Jake testified?

 

[Myland]

Jmo the state said the planning and purchasing started Jan 2016 and Billy was the mastermind. To me this proves Jake and Angela lied on the stand because in late Feb in the text between Billy and Angela Billy was still talking about going to court. He did not have the BIG so call idea until after Jan. So with that proof it is another reason I believe Jake and Angela are both capable of lying on George. If I was on Jury I would like to see those text messages again to verify timeline.

 

[rsd1200]

I missed George's interview at the border. Does anyone remember when that was? Was that played before Jake testified?

It was not ever played. His only interview and it was not played. The interview was performed in 2017. Only audio was done.

 

[ralyla]

I wonder how long the defense will take for closing arguments. I feel like they will keep it straight and to the point like they did in openings.

 

[Chelly]

In addressing jury before court recessed for day, judge stated defense would enter its closing statement tomorrow and prosecution has the right to enter a rebuttal statement.

 

[Betty P]

Jmo the state said the planning and purchasing started Jan 2016 and Billy was the mastermind. To me this proves Jake and Angela lied on the stand because in late Feb in the text between Billy and Angela Billy was still talking about going to court. He did not have the BIG so call idea until after Jan. So with that proof it is another reason I believe Jake and Angela are both capable of lying on George. If I was on Jury I would like to see those text messages again to verify timeline.

The Facebook messages that AW hacked into revealed Hanna's comment about "they'll have to kill me first". Angela shared Hanna's message with both Jake and GW4. The planning began not long after that.

JMO, they were planning for either eventuality - court or murder. It was pretty obvious that they had next to zero chance of winning in court.

 

[Betty P]

I wonder how long the defense will take for closing arguments. I feel like they will keep it straight and to the point like they did in openings.

I'm guessing about the same time or slightly less than the prosecution. JMO, the defense team has always seemed "work-shy" compared to the prosecution. They have very little evidence with which to defend GW4, but they will spend a lot of time making false or misleading attacks on the prosecution's evidence.

As always, expect Parker to lob a few courtroom grenades.

AC will need to return for rebuttal to clean up the claims of defense. JMO

 

[TenaciousTBacon]

It was not ever played. His only interview and it was not played. The interview was performed in 2017. Only audio was done.

Then why does Canepa keep referring to it?

 

[iulia]

Powerful ending to AC's closing arguments, IMO. Transcribed by me to the best of my abilities.

"I would submit to you that, again, the one thing that George said that was the truth is that Jake's honesty gets them in trouble and that is exactly what has happened in this case and I'm not here to say Jake Wagner is a hero by any stretch of imagination, he is a despicable vile human being, if .. if we can use human being to describe him. There is nothing of this planet that excuses what happened that night, nothing, but the difference between him and his brother is that he at least came forward and he at least gave this family something they didn't have before that time.
George said to Jake "the family has spoken". I would say the family has spoken. Jake and Angela have told you everything that this defendant did that night and his participation in the aggravated murders and all the other crimes listed in the indictment. We respectfully request that you return verdicts of guilty as to each count and to each specification. Thank you."

 

[justtrish]

Agree. Wished for Clark Kent as he's precise, to the point, and no ummms.

I saw a comment elsewhere that I agree with. She is likely doing the closing because she is connecting with the jury. She is speaking right to them. 9 women and 3 men, she is speaking to them, not us. I think Clark Kent does a great job asking questions when there is an expert that needs to get through a lot of details quick. He is great at that. I think when questioning the women in this case it was good for AC to be there almost having a dialog vs question and answer. I think they have been strategic with who does what. We might have thought the opening was long and boring with umms, but I've seen reports from those in the courtroom that said the jury was engaged the entre time and listened intently to her. So I'm going to trust that not just AC, but all 3 attorneys for the state have been reading the courtroom and especially the jurors and had AC do the closing for a reason.