WAVERLY, Ohio — A forensic accountant with the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigations resumed his testimony Wednesday morning, explaining purchases and financial activity of the Wagner family as the trial of a man accused of killing eight people in 2016 continued.
George Wagner IV — along with his mother Angela, father George "Billy" Wagner and brother Edward "Jake" Wagner — is accused of shooting and killing the Rhoden family members "execution-style." The family's bodies were found on April 22, 2016. He faces eight charges of aggravated murder, along with other charges associated with tampering with evidence, conspiracy and forgery.
Found dead that day were 40-year-old Christopher Rhoden Sr., 37-year-old Dana Rhoden, 20-year-old Hannah "Hazel" Gilley, 16-year-old Christopher Rhoden Jr., 20-year-old Clarence "Frankie" Rhoden, 37-year-old Gary Rhoden, 19-year-old Hanna May Rhoden, and 44-year-old Kenneth Rhoden.
The trial is the first time a person has faced a jury for the deaths of the Rhoden family six years ago.
Wednesday's testimony began with BCI forensic accountant Michael Kaizar continuing to explain to the jury what he determined was important within the Wagner family finances.
Tuesday afternoon, Kaizar detailed several purchases investigators believed could be used to build a homemade firearm suppressor as well as items like a bug detector and a brass catcher. He also noted several large insurance payouts made to accounts in Jake and George's names, including a payout check written out to George specifically.
As Kaizar picked his testimony back up on Wednesday morning, he explained that two items he paid particular attention to were credit cards. One credit card, in only Jake's name, was a Bass Pro card through the Bank of America and the other card, in only George's name, was a Cabela's card through Capital One.
Despite the bank contacting George about fraudulent activity with his card, neither the purchase of a multi-bug detector for $244.94 nor a $630.59 purchase from HK Trading Company in China were refunded, Kaizar said.
Of the multiple accounts owned by members of the Wagner family that he examined, Kaizar said he never found an account with all four family members' names attached. Instead, there were accounts where Jake and George were joint signers, accounts where Angela and George were joint signers and accounts where Jake and Angela were joint signers. Some accounts were under individual names, though none of those were Georges; all of his accounts listed either Jake or Angela as a co-signer.
Within those different accounts money was consistently moved between family member accounts, Kaizar said. In his experience, he said this indicated organization within a group that moves as a unit.
"Frequent transfers of money, sharing of funds, sharing of expenditures shows that even though accounts may be in separate names, what you're seeing is they're working as a coordinated group," said Kaizar.
All vehicles bought and used by the Wagner family were bought with loans in George and Jake's names and the deed for the Wagner family's farm on Peterson Road bore Jake and George's names. Kaizar said he had not record of vehicles purchased by Angela or Billy.
"Most of the grocery and general retail purchases were made on bank accounts and credit cards held by George and Jake," said Kaizar.
Prosecution asked him whether there were certain members of the Wagner family who were more financially tied together than others; he said Jake, Angela and George's finances were intertwined, while Billy's finances were more closely connected to his mother, Fredericka, with whom he was living at the time of the murders.
During cross examination, defense attorney Richard Nash pointed out that the transferring of funds from one Wagner account to another could be because they shared financial responsibilities and paid one another so the person whose name a utility or payment was in could foot the bill — like roommates might do. Kaizar conceded that was possible, but testified that many of the transfers were tens of thousands of dollars.
Prosecution challenged that idea, pointing out that, in one instance, George cashed a check in his name for $30,000 and ten days later transferred $25,000 of that to a different account in both Jake and George's names. Insurance payouts made to George and Jake were also dispersed throughout other accounts owned by different members of the Wagner family too, Kaizar said.
Defense questioned whether Kaizar was aware that, after the murders, Jake set up a GoFundMe account requesting donations to help in raising Sophia after her mother's death; Kaizar said he wasn't aware of anything like that.
Next, BCI lead agent in the case, Ryan Scheiderer, returned to the stand to testify about another search executed on the Wagners' former farm on Peterson Road.
Earlier in the trial, prosecutors played wiretap recordings in which the Wagners discussed learning that BCI agents were repeatedly searching their old property after they moved to Alaska. During more than one conversation, Angela questioned her sons on whether they knew which barn the agents were digging near.
"She just seemed super concerned about where exactly we were digging on that property," said Scheiderer.
Since law enforcement had yet to find any murder weapons or suspected suppressors used in the murders, Scheiderer said they decided to do another, smaller search of Peterson Road in October 2018. They were concerned, he said, about a newer barn the Wagners had built not long before they moved and whether the family had hidden murder weapons or important evidence in the concrete foundations of the barn.
If the investigative team felt tearing the barn down was crucial, Scheiderer said they had permission to do so but they would have to rebuild it for the new owners of the property — an expensive and difficult task Scheiderer said agents hoped to avoid.
"We determined we were not going to go that path," he said.
Investigators discovered, in a search of the older barn on the property, an old cistern buried under debris. Agents determined a dive team was necessary to fully search it, Scheiderer said.
photos of the cistern area. pic.twitter.com/l8XW6qCoy5
— Courtney Francisco (@CFranciscoWCPO) October 19, 2022
BCI agent Bryan White, who headed up the crime scene investigations, was re-called to the stand next. He said within the cistern the dive team ultimately did recover two items of importance: a device that looked like it was a homemade firearm suppressor and a fired .30 caliber shell casing. Before they recovered that, however, they had to remove the debris from the top and pump out the black sludge inside.
Prosecution then called Shawn Floyd, a member of the Franklin County Sheriff's Office dive team, to the stand. Floyd said he was told the space the dive team needed to search was inside the barn.
The team decided Floyd would be the one to enter the cistern and he said he was able to get into it until the water was knee-high before he was met with a solid surface. To properly dive down in, he said they had to remove more than 200 bricks that had been thrown into the cistern.
In the end, the cistern was around 15 feet deep, Floyd said, but he was able to find the damaged suppressor fairly easily.
The final witness of the day, James Barlow, was an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. He said he examined the device Floyd recovered from the cistern and determined, in his opinion, that it was the remains of an illegal, homemade silencer.
He explained to the jury what components went into making a homemade silencer, including necessary purchases and modifications — nearly all of which were purchased by Jake in the months leading up to the homicides.
He noticed right away when he received the item from BCI that it was a portion of a Maglite flashlight handle. Making a homemade silencer from a Maglite is common and relatively simple, and the components he found inside were certainly the kinds of items needed to turn the flashlight handle into a suppressor, he said.
He said he compared the homemade one to a flashlight in his office: pic.twitter.com/dns8Lvd9Fg
— Courtney Francisco (@CFranciscoWCPO) October 19, 2022
The device was damaged and had suffered a "baffle strike," which happens when baffling items inside the tube were not lined up properly for the bullet to cleanly exit through them. Barlow said he couldn't tell for certain what kind of ammunition or gun had fired through the silencer, creating the baffle strike, but he surmised it was not a high-powered weapon, which would have punched through the baffle with greater ease.
The device was also damaged in other ways, Barlow noted; aside from obvious rust and water damage caused by its time in the barn's cistern, Barlow said he believed it had also been burned.
Prosecution asked Barlow whether a fuel filter for a vehicle could be used as a silencer as well; he said it could and often is used for such a purpose, although illegally. The Maglite design is more efficient and can be further customized for the firearm it's intended to be attached to, but a spin-on fuel filter is faster and easier, he said.
Barlow confirmed that items Jake purchased — particularly a solvent trap — are all items that can come together to make an illegal silencer. Solvent traps in particular are, in practice, only used for that purpose, he said, even though they're marketed as serving a different purpose. He said he's never seen a gun owner use a solvent trap to catch cleaning solution poured down the barrel of a gun for proper disposal.
The drill bits Jake purchased were also likely used in the creation of the silencer, Barlow said, noting that they were roughly the length of the kind of Maglite flashlight Jake had also purchased.
You can catch up on the day's testimony below:
Watch opening statements below:
You can read recaps of each day of the trial in our coverage below:
- Clandestine recordings made by Jake, Wagner family finances presented
- Wire taps played for jury as court enters sixth week of testimony
- George Wagner IV's grandmother testifies
- Interview with Angela played for jury, Angela's half brother takes stand
- Texts highlight Wagner family dynamic, purchases for possible silencer
- Dozens of guns collected in search of Flying W Farm, but no murder weapons
- Jury shown evidence collected from Wagner belongings
- Evidence collected on Wagner property presented
- BCI agents testified to evidence
- Ex-wife of George Wagner IV describes 'strange and controlling' Wagner home
- Jury hears from George Wagner IV's ex-wife as fourth week of testimony begins
- Family members tearfully describe the day of the homicides
- Bloody shoe prints, cell phone records are focus
- Experts testify about ballistics, shoeprint evidence
- Third week of trial moves on to Kenneth Rhoden's home
- Evidence presented from third crime scene
- Scene where Dana, Chris. Jr and Hanna May Rhoden were killed is focus
- Testimony focuses on second of four crime scenes
- Coroner describes two of eight victims autopsied
- Forensic testimony continues into Monday
- Forensic evidence takes center stage
- Testimony centers on Kenneth Rhoden, final victim discovered
- Emergency responders testify about chaotic scenes
- Witnesses describe discovering their family members' bodies
- Opening statements detail grisly moments in the six-year-old murder case
- Read a full timeline of the Pike County murder investigation
