WAVERLY, Ohio — George Wagner IV faces trial Monday after eight members of the Rhoden family were found shot to death at point-blank range while sleeping in their Pike County homes six years ago.
George — 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.
George is the first person to stand trial in connection with the massacre.
In May 2017, just over one year after the murders, SWAT members and law enforcement officials spent two days searching a Peterson Road property in Peebles, Ohio owned by Jake and George. Property records showed the brothers had sold the property the previous March.
By June that year, a pastor and family friend told the Dayton Daily News that the family had moved to Alaska and were "trying to move on."
George and his family eventually moved back to the contiguous U.S. and were arrested on November 13, 2018.
George entered a plea of not guilty on November 28, 2018 and has refused to change that plea multiple times in the years since — even as several members of his family accepted plea deals from the prosecution.
George's brother, Edward "Jake" Wagner, is the family member at the center of what prosecutors believe was the motive for the killings: A custody battle between Jake and Hanna Rhoden over their then-3-year-old daughter.
Jake pleaded guilty to eight counts of aggravated murder in April 2021, taking a plea deal that dismissed the possibility of the death penalty for all of the Wagner family members.
Months later, in September, George's mother, Angela Wagner, also took a plea deal. In exchange for changing her plea to guilty, prosecutors dropped the aggravated murder charges against her and recommended 30 years in prison with no chance of early release. Neither have been sentenced yet.
George's father, George "Billy" Wagner III, is the only other family member maintaining a plea of not guilty. He does not yet have a trial date.
George's grandmothers — both paternal and maternal — were initially charged in the massacre as well. Rita Newcomb, who is Angela Wagner's mother, and Fredericka Wagner, who is Billy Wagner's mother, were charged with obstructing justice and perjury. Prosecutors eventually dropped all charges against Fredericka, and Newcomb was the first in the family to accept a plea deal, changing her plea in December 2019. She has also not yet been sentenced, but she was released from house arrest after she accepted the deal.
George and his attorneys have repeatedly requested certain evidence be disallowed during his trial, including audio recordings created from days of surveillance on the Wagner family.
In October 2021, George and his attorneys also attempted to have all charges against him dropped. His attorneys argued there is evidence that George didn't shoot or kill anyone in the 2016 attack, but the motion was denied.
Jury selection for George's trial began on August 8; Opening statements are scheduled to begin on September 12.
WCPO will livestream the entire trial from beginning to end. You can bookmark our live page here or download our WCPO app on your streaming connected TV (Roku, Amazon Fire, Apple TV and Android TV). We will also publish recap articles from the courtroom on our website every day court is in session.
EDITOR'S NOTE: The original version of this story reported the trial would begin on Monday, August 29. The trial has since been delayed twice.
