@pattinewberry
WAVERLY, Ohio -- Live tweeting from the
#PikeCountyMassacre hearings for
#BillyWagner,
#JakeWagner,
#AngelaWagner,
#RitaNewcomb today. Attorneys for Jake and Angela in the courtroom now, with sentencing proceeding scheduled for 10 am.
.
#PikeCountymassacre courtroom filling with family now. More than 25 in attendance. Some are expected to make victim impact statements as
#JakeWagner and
#AngelaWagner are sentenced.
Reminder in
#PikeCountyMassacre case that
#JakeWagner earlier agreed to serve a maximum of eight consecutive life sentences and 160 more years, after admitting to killing five of the eight victims in the 2016 Pike County homicides.
#AngelaWagner agreed to serve 30 years.
Prosecutor Angela Canepa has arrived in the
#PikeCountymassacre courtroom.
#BillyWagner mother in law Rita Newcomb, 71, is seated at the defense table with her attorney. She earlier pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of obstructing official business in the
#PikeCountymassacre case. Max sentence is 90 days.
Photogs in the @PikeCountymassacre courtroom have been asked to move out of the jury box. If the live feed is down, that is why.
.
#JakeWagner has entered the
#PikeCountymassacre courthouse in orange jail apparel. Heavy armed guards on duty. He's seated in the jury box with a guard.
#jakewagner enters the courtroom.
.
#AngelaWagner now in the courtroom, also in the jury box, just feet from her son, Jake, and mother Rita Newcomb.
#angelawagner enters the jury box in
#Pikecountymassacre case.
At least 16 armed officers in the
#PikeCountymassacre courtroom. All silent awaiting the judge, at 22 minutes past go time.
Judge Jonathan Hein has taken the bench in the
#PikeCountymassacre case. He led all in the pledge of allegiance.
"This is a government activity," Judge Hein said in explaining why he led the pledge of allegiance. He also said he understands there will be high emotion in today's sentencing hearings.
"Decorum matters," Judge Hein said. "Everyone has been well behaved and I expect that to continue.”
Hein will take Rita, then Angela, then Jake in that order, for sentencing. Victim statements will be taken together.
Victim statements will be broadcast in full, per their attorney.
Hein said he has allocated 10 minutes for victim statements.
Prosecutor Angela Canepa up first to address sentencing recommendations. Judge Hein just told co-counsel Ron O'Brien to be ready to step in, telling Canepa not to rehash earlier matters. If she doesn't, he will take disciplinary action, he said.
Canepa said the state did not have an agreed-on sentence for
#RitaNewcomb -- so leaves her sentence to the discretion of the court.
Canepa recommended the earlier-agreed 30 years for
#AngelaWagner.
Angela Canepa recommended that
#JakeWagner be sentenced to the earlier agreed-on terms: max of eight consecutive sentences and 160 more years
On
#JakeWagner, Canepa said he understands he will never live outside prison.
First victim statement to come from Andrea Shoemaker, mother of victim Hannah Hazel Gilley.
Andrea Shoemaker offering a tearful indictment, wearing a T shirt with two of the victim. "You are the spawn of Satan, and the Satan is Billy Wagner," she said. "My daughter was only 20.”
Andrea Shoemaker: Victim children now see the Wagners on TV and she's had to explain who they are. "I want you to suffer," she said to
#JakeWagner. "I hate you. You've ruined my life. YOu've ruined innocent children's lives."
#JakeWagner and
#AngelaWagner sitting stoic in the jury box. Jake is looking directly at Andrea Shoemaker, as she screams at them from the gallery. Angela Wagner is looking down mostly.
Angela Canepa reading two statements next. Bobby Jo Manley's is first. Manley said: "You've destroyed my life and so many others. .. You are the devil." Manley was first to discover the victims in April 2016.
Canepa also read a letter from Luke Rhoden, son of victim Kenneth Rhoden, asking for justice.
A niece named Liese read a letter on behalf of the Rhoden family called the Wagner family "master manipulators." To Jake, she said: "We are no longer family. You will be an afterthought to our family.”
#RitaNewcomb attorney Frank Gerlach said Rita spent approximately eight days in jail, then wore an ankle monitor for a year. She recently had heart surgery, and is doing well on that. She has limited income of $981 a month in Social Security, Gerlach said, saying she has no funds
Judge Hein said max sentence for
#RitaNewcomb is 90 days and up to $750 in fines. He said she has had a clean record since then. He ordered five years probation. No jail time, but is imposing the fine and court costs, subject to her ability to pay.
#RitaNewcomb's response: "Do I have to go to jail?" Response is no. But yes, she's supposed to pay, as able. After five years, the court will forgive whatever she hasn't paid.
Hein clarified: 90 max, seven days served, balance suspended.
#AngelaWagner is moving to the defense table with attorney Robert Krapenc. She is shackled at the ankles.
Krapenc on sentencing for
#AngelaWagner: "Ms. Wagner is very cognizant" that the current judge is not obligated to follow the agreement reached with the prior judge in the case. But he recommends it -- 30 years w/o parole.
Krapenc:
#AngelaWagner did not kill anyone but admits her role in preparing and covering up the crimes. "Ms. Wagner will continue to live up to her end of the deal." She's also completed 40-50 programs while incarcerated in Delaware County. She's a trusty, mentors other inmates.
#AngelaWagner read a prepared statement. She stood with her attorney taking the classes off the top of her head to place on her nose. She said she spent her life trying to be the perfect person -- daughter, wife, mother.
Speaking in a soft and hard-to-hear voice,
#AngelaWagner offered regret and remorse over her role in the
#PikeCountymassacre case. "I've committed myself to change," she said. "Each day I work on being a better me."
Judge Hein said he understood the raw emotion of victim families and offered them luck in moving forward. In sentencing, however, he cannot rely on emotion, he said. "It's not emotionally driven.”
Hein continued: He must consider law, chance of recidivism, mutually agreed-on sentence.
#angelaWagner will have no appeal rights, he told her. He imposed 30 years, with credit for 2244 days already served. When released she will remain on parole 2-5 years.
Hein said: "I could have gone higher." But the state needed her and she came through, he said. "You helped the state make the case. Jake helped the case make the state." Without that, she might be facing "a much worst outcome."
Hein also told
#Angelawagner: "You were the only one who could have shut it down." When her husband and sons left the house to commit the crimes, she could have called authorities and turned them in. That was depravity, he told her.
