WAVERLY, Ohio — Several phone conversations and wiretapped recordings were played for the jury Wednesday, revealing the Wagner family dynamic in 2018, two years after the murders and just months before they were arrested.
Although the defense called witnesses for their case on Monday, this week will be a mixed bag of witnesses, because the prosecution still has evidence to present.
The defense was told by the prosecution they could call their witnesses beginning Monday, but a delay in the trial Friday hindered the prosecution's ability to wrap their case on schedule. Because witnesses were already scheduled to appear Monday and Thursday, the defense opened their case with their witnesses, but the prosecution will still have the opportunity to finish their case this week.
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.
After several days of arguments between the prosecution and defense attorneys on which wiretap recordings collected from conversations between the Wagner family members should be played in court, the jury heard several of the audio files Wednesday.
The prosecution re-called Julia Eveslage, a BCI analyst, to the witness stand; she explained how the wiretap recordings were obtained and the process BCI agents went through to listen to and collect each one.
The first recording played for the jury was a conversation between Jake and his then-wife Elizabeth Armer, in which they discussed allegations leveled against Beth that she'd inappropriately touched Jake's daughter, Sophia.
In the call, Beth expressed frustration about living in the Wagner home under constant suspicion, particularly from Angela.
"It's not really sustainable to live under this kind of suspicion," said Beth.
Jake defended his mother a bit, explaining to his wife that Angela was just worried about the allegation while trying to comfort Beth by telling her everything would be ok.
"It's just really difficult," said Beth. "She thinks that I'm worse than a murderer, and you're so willing to believe it. Like, jumping to believe that I'm worse than a murderer. All relationships are built by trust and destroyed by distrust and this kind of distrust, it's eating away at my soul."
Jake apologized for his mother's attitude toward Beth and the call ended. Angela Canepa, special prosecutor, then played the next clip, in which Jake and Beth continued to discuss the dynamics within the Wagner household — especially between Beth and her mother-in-law.
Jake began the conversation by telling Beth it didn't matter what Angela thought of her, because Jake loved her and what he thought mattered most.
"But I live with her five days out of the week and you two days out of the week, so it does actually matter," Beth argued.
Jake tried to explain that Angela didn't really hate her but needed time to let her guard back down with Beth after his daughter's claim, which wouldn't happen overnight, he said. Beth sounded near tears as she told him that the kids didn't understand why they had to stay away from her, putting her in an awkward position when they wanted to play with her, because Angela would freak out if the kids came near her.
"So I've told you Sophie keeps trying to close me in the bedroom," said Beth. "If I would not be paying attention 100% of the time and if she was to succeed and close and lock the door for more than one minute, your mom would see that as a possible time when I could have been abusing Sophie. So I'm literally constantly on edge and constantly watching."
Jake promised her he'd speak with his mother and find a way for the couple to make things work in the long run. He encouraged Beth to speak with Angela herself and express her concerns directly, but Beth argued that would prove pointless.
"If you had a snake in your house — and she sees me as a snake — you wouldn't care one bit how the machete you swing affects the snake," she said.
At the end of the conversation, before the couple hung up the call, Beth sighed and told Jake she felt like she was living in Nazi Germany.
The third recording played for the jury was a conversation between Jake and his mother about Beth; during the call, the pair argued, often yelling over top of one another.
The call began with Angela complaining that Beth had walked to the library again.
"What is she doing there every day for three to four hours?" she asked Jake.
Jake explained Beth was using the library's internet to print and fill out job applications for different places throughout the area, trying to secure work. Angela began to shout that Beth couldn't look for jobs in certain towns because she could be recognized by family or others who lived there.
"Did she get a library card to go and use that stuff up there?" asked Angela, pointing out Beth had taken mail with her during one walk to the library.
Jake said he didn't know and Angela scoffed. She said she thought the family was supposed to be lying low. Jake told her he didn't understand why Beth trying to find a job was a big deal.
"Well, I thought it was a big deal ... saving our butts and keeping the kids safe, I thought that was a big deal," said Angela.
She began to get angry, yelling that Jake had hidden his truck, given several belongings away and told the family to stay in hiding; Jake told her she was getting overly emotional and needed to take her hormonal medication. During her testimony, Angela told the jury she'd had a hysterectomy and took medication afterward.
"You've done enough damage," said Angela.
She then began to yell at Jake over his telling Sophia she was the girl's grandmother, not her mother; she was also angry Jake was choosing to believe Beth over Sophia, putting his daughter in further danger.
"Beth is her mommy, I'm her grandmother, Beth didn't do anything wrong, it was just Sophie," said Angela.
After Jake told his daughter this, Angela said Sophia now prefers Beth to her and told Bulvine, George's son, that Angela was her grandmother, which confused the boy.
"Now Bulvine has fifty million questions wanting to know how it is that I'm Sophie's grandmother," said Angela.
"How did I do damage, mom?" said Jake. "You are not her mother."
The two shouted at one another for awhile before the call disconnected. Canepa then played a fourth recording, where Jake and Angela picked up their conversation where they'd left off after the call dropped.
They continued to argue over when Jake told Sophia that Angela was not her mother. Jake said his mother told him he could tell the girl and Angela argued that she'd said he would have to tell his daughter only if he'd decided not to put her first, over Beth.
"So either don't trust Sophie or kick my wife to the curb, is that what you said?" argued Jake.
Angela then accused Beth of snooping, because she'd told Jake when Angela put Sophia to bed one night without having her call Jake while he was on the road. Angela said Beth had hidden away, snooping on her, telling Jake "I don't like snoopers."
"She's not snooping, I told her to tell me when Sophie went to bed so I could call to tell her good night," said Jake. "She did exactly what I told her to do."
They argue over something Jake called a misunderstanding over the kids — Angela argued that every time she tried to prove Beth was a liar, Jake called it a misunderstanding.
"How many misunderstandings are there gonna be, Jacob? I told you I would not trust her," said Angela.
Jake again tells his mother she needs her medicine, which angered Angela further. She told Jake that Beth talked about him behind his back, calling him naive, dumb and saying that he doesn't know how to be a father to Sophia and George doesn't know how to be a father to Bulvine.
"People are not trustworthy, you should know that," said Angela.
Jake responded that Angela doesn't trust anyone besides the four of them and said there was no "stone cold proof" against Beth.
The two continued arguing about Beth and whether she could be trusted; Jake continued to defend Beth and admonished his mother for insulting his wife every day.
The next recording played was a conversation between George and Jake while the two were traveling in their semi truck, delivering for R&L Carriers. In the conversation, George accused Jake of choosing Beth over his daughter and the two yelled at each other; the recording was difficult to hear, with ambient noise from the truck polluting the sound of the brothers' argument.
"You believe a frickin' whore over her," said George, referring to Jake believing Beth over Sophia.
"You will not insult my wife," Jake responded.
"I will insult your wife," said George. "You're just too f****** blind ... you swore up and down you'd never let a woman come between you and Suds."
George continued to yell at Jake, accusing him of putting Sophia on the back burner; the pair later argued about their religious beliefs and whether Jake trusted Beth enough to care for his daughter if they all were sent to the electric chair. Jake said he wouldn't want Beth to have Sophia, but not because he didn't trust her; instead it was because she hadn't been married to him long enough to know how he'd want Sophia raised.
The next recording, another conversation between Jake and George while traveling in the truck, was another fight between the brothers. This time, George yelled at Jake because he now had to explain things to his son as a result of something Jake told Sophia. The two argue loudly and the audio is difficult to make out; George calls Beth the "most jealous little girl I ever seen" before threatening to rat Jake out to BCI, because "every time I try to do something, you rat me out."
On June 2, 2018, George and Angela spoke on the phone. Angela told George they needed to have a family meeting about BCI's investigation and George became angry, shouting that the Wagner family needed to expose BCI and the Pike County Sheriff's Office for being crooked cops.
"If you do not fight back, you do not stand a chance," said George. "They're not gonna do those scare tactics on me, I will wreck their frickin' world."
The two then argue about money needed to pay attorneys, and the insurance money George should have gotten after his vehicle was crashed; Angela accused her half-brother, Chris Newcomb, of cashing in on the insurance and going shopping with the funds instead of paying George, though George said Newcomb knew what George was owed and would pay.
Later that same day, George and Angela spoke on the phone again; Angela speculated that BCI agents could be responsible for the gossip about the murders on the social media site Topix and George encouraged his mother to tell the world what law enforcement had done, including drugging the children at the border.
"They will crumple and they will break," if the family retaliated by releasing information about police activity to the media, George said.
He told his mother every time she and Billy got in trouble with law enforcement was because someone caved.
"I'm not gonna cave and I'm not gonna crumble," said George.
He continued to level threats against investigators, shouting in the phone call, sometimes over Angela as she tried to calm him down.
One audio recording played for the jury was simply George uttering one line from the semi truck he drove with Jake:
"Yes, Ryan, I know you're listening to this," he said, referring to BCI special agent Ryan Scheiderer, who led the murder investigation.
On June 9, 2018, Angela and Jake spoke on the phone, while George chimed in from the background of the call.
"I have a feeling that we're running on borrowed time," said Angela, referring to BCI agents closing in on the family.
Jake and Angela talked briefly about Beth, with Angela encouraging Jake to let her hire a private investigator to look into his wife's history. The suggestion angered Jake, who bitterly told her to go ahead and do whatever she wanted. Angela pointed out that every time she was asked about wrongdoings, Beth's answers were "too quick and too perfect," which Angela believed indicated she was lying to them.
The two argued over the contents of a journal entry Beth made, in which she'd said she hated Angela and could tell police her mother-in-law was responsible for the murders — though in the same entry, Beth conceded that would be awful and a lie. The prosecution showed this journal entry in its entirety to the jury when Beth took the stand earlier in the trial.
During the conversation, George could be heard yelling in the background, taking his mother's side and arguing with Jake's account of the journal entry. George said Beth could be a witness and get the whole family arrested.
Conversation then shifted to discussing what would happen if members of the family were arrested for the murders.
If she wasn't married to Billy and didn't have to care for Bulvine and Sophia, Angela told her sons she wouldn't do life in prison.
"I'm not taking a life sentence, Jake, I'm gonna take the electric chair and die," she said, adding that would be her choice if BCI framed the family.
"Well, mom, I love you, but you got no balls," said Jake. "You're taking the easy way out."
Jake asked George what he would do, and his brother responded he'd choose the electric chair too, but planned to take officers with him on his way out.
"You need to stop talking about this stuff on this phone," said Angela.
"I know they're listening," said Jake.
In the background, George began to rant about law enforcement and said he wanted to kill "Ryan," referring to Scheiderer.
"George, shut up!" yelled Jake.
Angela told Jake she'd speak with them when they were home, because "I don't want those idiots to hear every single thing I say."
On June 12, 2018, George and Angela spoke on the phone, discussing Beth and their concerns about her.
"I'm telling you, mom, there's something up with her," said George.
Angela agreed, and said Beth had a terrible fit that day, telling her Jake didn't need his wife because he had Angela and he could pay prostitutes for the one thing he didn't get from his mother. George told Angela he wanted witnesses around while she was home with Beth, because he worried for her.
When there couldn't be another person around, George told his mother to "go in the room, lock the door, keep that thing with you. I don't trust that girl."
The two speculated as to whether Beth was planning to leave Jake, and George said he believed the only reason she hadn't was because she had no money and no car.
Next, the prosecution played audio from a conversation between Angela and George, after BCI agents had begun to ask family members about a photo depicting a hand holding a 1911 .22 caliber Colt pistol.
Angela and George argued about whether the photo showed a silencer on the gun or not; Angela's mother, Rita Newcomb, said she'd never seen the photo before, but that BCI told her they'd just come to her place to talk before they were ready to "lock stuff down" in the investigation.
"They're making crap up," said George, though they both sounded anxious during the call.
On June 13, 2018, Angela called George to tell him not to use his cell phone anymore and to tell his brother to do the same when he woke up. If he was arrested, he wasn't to sign anything and should insist on having his attorney present, she said. She emphasized that George had to tell Jake the same, because Jake had been too friendly with BCI agents in the past.
The next day, on June 14, Jake called his employer and told them he and George had a family emergency and needed to cut their long-haul trip short to head home.
Later that same day, Angela spoke to George on the phone, again complaining about Beth. This time she accused Jake's then-wife of putting doctored ice cubes in the freezer; Billy was at the house then and smelled them too, she said.
"That ice tasted like that nasty, disgusting medicine again. Your dad took a taste and about puked, he wouldn't even drink it," she said.
She and George gossiped about Jake's relationship with her and how to provide fail-safes against Beth gaining anything from the family as a result of her marriage to Jake.
Also on June 14, Jake and George loudly discussed a list of firearms BCI found on Jake's cell phone, referring to it as a "wish list," not a list of guns the family already owned. During his testimony, Jake admitted this was a lie — the list hadn't been one of guns they hoped to own, but a list of ones they did own.
"Don't make no more wish lists, Jake," said George.
"I don't think I'm going to," said Jake.
"You and your frickin' wish list," said George.
The phrase "wish list" was used at least five times in the brief recording, all by George.
Still on June 14, 2018, Angela called George once more, to discuss Beth. The two spoke about the photo of a hand holding a gun that had been shown to family and Angela said, while at the Flying W Farm, owned by Billy's mother Fredericka, Angela opened the photo while Fredericka walked by.
Fredericka said the hand in the photo was not Jake's but Beth disagreed, Angela said.
"Beth looks at her and says 'yes it is,'" said Angela. "Beth said 'that's Jake's thumb all right.'"
"She's full of crap," George responded.
"I know that, alright," said Angela. "Better hope to God they don't call her to the stand."
The prosecution played one final recording of the day — a nearly 40 minute long clip of George and Jake made on June 26, 2018. Eveslage said the conversation was of George and Jake talking about Beth and their living situation, though the clip was incredibly difficult to understand.
Road noise ebbed and flowed in the recording and while it was clear the brothers were screaming loudly at one another the entire time — with George screaming loudest — actual words are hard to make out.
At one point, George screamed at his brother, "I won't have my son in danger every day."
Jake's part of the conversation is much less audible through most of the conversation, though it's clear the two argued about Beth and the allegations leveled against her by Sophia and Angela.
"My son is not a liar, your wife's a liar and has been proven a liar time and time again," screamed George.
George accused Jake's then-wife of leaving doors to their home unlocked on purpose and of lying about her whereabouts and actions when she took walks to the library. George turned his vitriolic rant toward his brother later in the conversation, accusing Jake of screwing everything up for the rest of the family.
"You're the reason we're in this mess," shouted George.
He told his brother to "get rid of her while you still can" before continuing to berate him for making choices that harmed the family and led BCI on their trail.
"We get electrocuted, I want you to realize it's your fault," said George.
Court recessed after the recording and will resume Thursday morning. Because of scheduling issues, Thursday morning's testimony will begin with a witness from the defense's case, with the remainder of the wiretap recordings coming once that witness steps down from the stand.
You can read recaps of each day of the trial in our coverage below:
- Jury dismissed early again over disagreements on wiretap recordings
- Prosecution tries to tie murder plot to movie plot
- Trial postponed to Monday over evidentiary issues
- Murders were about protection, not custody, said Angela
- Angela told the prosecution bloody shoeprints belonged to George
- Angela Wagner called to stand, opted out of recording
- Investigators describe recovering, testing murder weapons
- Jake Wagner finishes testimony as seventh week of trial wrapped up
- Photos of murder weapons are shown for first time as Jake testifies for third day
- Jake Wagner 'could not bear to think' or speak about his crimes after the murders
- 'I felt I had no other choice than to kill Hanna,' Jake Wagner told jury
- 'I was afraid they were going to kill me,' Jake's ex-wife testifies
- Texts between Hanna Rhoden and Jake Wagner detail ongoing custody argument
- Witnesses describe intertwined Wagner finances and a device found inside a well
- 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
You can watch the day's proceedings in the player below:
Watch opening statements below:
