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WARNING – Trial coverage could contain graphic images or language
WAVERLY, Ohio (WXIX) – Confessed Pike County killer Jake Wagner returned to the witness stand Wednesday to testify for the third day in a row against his brother, George Wagner IV.
Pike County massacre: Complete trial coverage
For the first time, jurors saw pictures of the three guns, parts and some of the ammunition that Jake Wagner says were used to kill eight members of the Rhoden and Gilley families on April 21-22, 2016.
Jake Wagner said he broke up the guns, burned parts off them and then he and his father placed the guns and parts into 5-gallon buckets filled with cement, as well as live ammo for one of them, the .40-caliber Glock Billy used.
The buckets were attached to a goose house the Wagner brothers then gave to their grandfather for the lake at Flying W Farms.
Jake Wagner told the jury earlier this week he used a Walther Colt 1911 .22 caliber pistol in the killings, Billy was armed with the Glock and his brother had the SKS rifle.
His brother was supposed to shoot Chris Rhoden Sr., but froze, so Jake Wagner said he took the SKS and pulled the trigger, shooting Chris Rhoden as he stood by the front door of his trailer.
In other highights from Jake Wagner’s testimony so far Wednesday:
- Jurors saw a photo that has been referred to mutiple times in previous witness testimony, most recently when Jake Wagner’s ex-wie testified on Friday: The picture of Jake’s hand holding one of the murder weapons. BCI sent it to George Wagner while the brothers were on the road truck driving, Jake Wagner testified.
- Jake Wagner’s father, Billy Wagner, was upset with him and his brother for dying their hair darker before killings. Jake Wagner told the jury he was taught ‘when you was to hide from someone, hide in plain sight.’
- Jake Wagner revealed on the stand he decided to take the plea deal when his grandmother, Rita Holcomb, did. She said at the time she just couldn’t lie to God or something to that effect. Jake told the jury: “To me, it felt like the answer I was looking for at the time, an answer from God. It was weighing me.”
- At some point after the killings, Jake said his dad, Billy Wagner, asked him if he regretted doing the homicides ‘I had told him that I did not,’ Jake said he told his dad. Special Prosecutor Angela Canepa asked him: “Is that true? He responded: “No” and told her he just told his dad that to make him feel better. He testified that he felt if his dad felt what they had done wasn’t worth it, Jake feared Billy would commit suicide
Jake Wagner’s testimony will continue off-camera, Pike County Common Pleas Court Judge Randy Deering ruled after an hour-long hearing Wednesday morning before the jury was brought in.
When witnesses opt-out of being recorded on the media pool livestream, only people in the courtroom can see and hear it.
Multiple other witnesses have testified on camera including both George Wagner and Jake Wagner’s ex-wives, some relatives of the Rhoden family who cried on the stand at times as they recounted painful memories of their slain loved ones, agents from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation and the deputy coroner at the Hamilton County Coroner’s Office who performed autopsies on all of the victims.
Few have opted out but some have, including Pike County Sheriff Tracy D. Evans, who was the first law enforcement official on the scene the morning the victims’ bodies were found.
The elected official testified early on in the trial and told FOX19 NOW his decision to take the stand off camera was not due to any security concerns.
“It was personal reasons. That (case) affected me quite a bit because I was first on scene. It was for personal reasons. I did not want to see my face on UTube five years from now, five months from now and it would just bring back bad memories.”
On Tuesday, however, an appeals court ordered the judge to keep the cameras on for all witness testimony unless he holds a hearing first and certain criteria to allow off camera testimony is established:
- Reasonable & substantial basis for believing public access could harm or endanger fairness of adjudication
- Potential for harm outweighs benefits of public access
- No reasonable options to closure
So Deering scheduled the hearing with less than 24-hour notice.
Media attorney Jack Greiner urged the judge to have Jake Wagner testify on camera or at least provide an audio feed due to the high public interest in the case, which is Ohio’s largest and most expensive murder investigation/prosecution to date.
The judge, however, chose to keep Jake Wagner’s testimony off camera.
He cited concerns for Jake Wagner’s safety as a jail/prison inmate. The judge announced his decision immediately following testimony from a veteran official in the state’s prison system, Robert Horton.
Under questioning by Special Prosecutor Andy Wilson, a member of Gov. Mike DeWine’s cabinet who is a senior advisor to Criminal Justice Policy, Horton said on the stand that inmates who testify against other inmates – particularly family members – are under heightened risk for being attacked and could even be killed.
That heightened security risk also applies to prison staff, Horton confirmed.
“Have you heard the phrase ‘Snitches get stitches?’”Wilson asked Horton.
He responded: “I have heard the phrase, yes.”
Wilson and Jake Wagner’s attorney also argued that changing the rules now and requiring Jake Wagner to testify on camera after he’s testified off camera the last two days could have a chilling effect on the rest of his testimony.
What’s more, both Jake Wagner and George Wagner’s attorneys objected in general over a variety of other concerns including their clients’ constitutional rights.
The judge said the decision to allow Jake Wagner to testify off camera applies only to him, not all the other witnesses who may want to opt out, too.
Angela Wagner is expected to testify against George Wagner IV next week. The judge said Tuesday the prosecution already indicated last month they wanted both Jake Wagner and Angela Wagner to testify off camera.
Since Angela Wagner and Jake Wagner already confessed to their roles in the slayings, their testimony against George Wagner is part of their plea deals with the state.
In testimony on Tuesday, Jake Wagner told the jury how his brother and their dad helped him get rid of the guns and other things they used in the execution-style killings of eight people in April 2016.
He told the jury his family agreed to tell law enforcement they were all at home watching TV when the slayings happened on April 21-22, 2016.
“I believe my dad said don’t offer gains,” Wagner recalled on the stand.
Under questioning from Special Prosecutor Angela Canepa, he said he and his family never talked about the killings or his daughter’s custody, which is believed to be the motive in what has become Ohio’s biggest and most expensive murder case to date.
“No. I couldn’t without having immense guilt …I decided to erase the memory completely.”
On Monday, Jake Wagner nonchalantly described committing crimes such as arson and theft for years with his family and talked just as calmly about gunning down most of the eight members of the Rhoden and Gilley families.
Jake Wagner describes massacre: ‘’She looked up and made a gasping noise and then I shot her’
Prosecutors say the Wagners planned the execution-style murders for months so Jake Wagner could have sole custody of his daughter, Sophia, born in 2015 to one of the victims, Hanna May Rhoden, 19.
The other victims are her father, Christopher Rhoden Sr., 40; his older brother, Kenneth Rhoden, 44; his cousin, Gary Rhoden, 38; his former wife, Dana Lynn Rhoden, 37, and their sons: Clarence “Frankie” Rhoden, 20, Christopher Rhoden Jr., 16, and Frankie’s fiancé, Hannah “Hazel” Gilley, 20.
Legal analyst talks latest Pike County trial developments
During a sidebar in court Monday, Jake Wagner looked at several of the victims’ relatives in the courtroom and appeared to mouth the words: “I’m sorry.”
George Wagner IV, 31, is the first of the Wagners to go on trial.
He has pleaded not guilty to 22 charges, including eight counts of aggravated murder, along with his father, Billy Wagner.
George Wagner didn’t shoot and kill anyone, but prosecutors say he can and should be convicted of aggravated murder because he conspired with his family in the planning and carrying out of the massacre.
Jake Wagner told the jury Monday that his brother was supposed to be the one who shot Chris Rhoden Sr., but he froze so Jake pulled the trigger.
Jake Wagner and his mother pleaded guilty to their roles in the massacre last year. Then, Jake Wagner led investigators to the weapons and vehicles used in the killings.
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