Billy Wagner will not face the death penalty in trial for 2016 Pike County massacre

Video of previous coverage.

PIKE COUNTY, Ohio (WXIX) – The only member of the Wagner family who has not yet been tried does not face the death penalty.

The state of Ohio’s request for a death penalty against George “Billy” Wagner III, 53, was denied by retired Darke County Common Pleas Court Judge Jonathan Hein, according to a entry listed on the Pike County Common Pleas Court website.

The 53-year-old is the only member of the Wagner family still on trial in the 2016 Pike County massacre.

If Billy Wagner is convicted of any of the murders, the judge could sentence him to a maximum of life in prison with the possibility of parole.

The change of venue request filed by Billy Wagner’s defense team was granted earlier this week, according to online court documents.

The defense team wanted to move the trial to another county, arguing at a previous hearing before retired Judge Hein that “the jury pool had already been tainted.”

Given the media coverage of the Wagner family cases, the judge said “bias is presumed” and “no jury can honestly answer that it has no prior knowledge of the horrific facts of this case.” .

In a court document dated Nov. 20, the State of Ohio wrote that it became aware of previously unknown information following an Oct. 7 court hearing.

The State wrote:

The State argued that Cincinnati’s “hearing coverage” only extended as far north as Adams County.

Judge Hein wrote in his decision that media is much more than just live broadcasts.

“Additional media penetration exceeds traditional live media broadcasting due to Internet broadcasting, social media broadcasting and subsequent publicity of ‘crime shows’ about this case.

As for where the trial will take place, that is still unknown, special prosecutor Angela Canepa told FOX19 NOW.

In the meantime, the 53-year-old remains locked up at the Pickaway County Jail in Circleville.

He was transferred there earlier this year to be closer to his Columbus-based attorneys after being held in the Butler County Jail since his arrest six years ago this month.

Billy Wagner’s trial is scheduled to begin on January 6.

He continues to plead not guilty to all 22 charges, including eight counts of aggravated murder related to the killings of his son’s ex-girlfriend and seven members of her family in April 2016.

Special prosecutors and That of Jake Wagner The defense team reached a plea deal in 2022: if Jake and Angela Wagner appeared to testify honestly against Billy Wagner and his eldest son, George Wagner III, then the death penalty would be ruled out for everyone.

Without this now entering Billy Wagner’s trial, Jake Wagner and Angela Wagner are no longer obligated to testify honestly against him.

“If you convict the defendants, what legally happens to the state’s ability to enforce their plea agreements?” One of the special prosecutors, Angela Canepa, asked the judge with obvious frustration.

Only the state, she noted, decides whether it believes Jake Wagner testified truthfully.

The court, she argued, cannot deny death penalty requests without a motion from the state or defense.

Judge Hein said in court that the state was supposed to have an agreement in place by September or October. He then cited a state law that gives the court the authority to announce the reason for a judge’s dismissal of a case.

“‘We’re getting there, we’re getting there’ – it was like someone playing a record today,'” Judge told Canepa. “I tell you we don’t move forward with a death penalty trial when the defense is not ready because the state is not ready. I’m not assigning blame, I’m saying time is up.

“Why are you trying to sabotage this matter right now?” » Canepa replied.

“I have a duty to bring this matter to a conclusion,” the judge told him.

FOX19 NOW legal analyst Mike Allen said he’s not sure the judge can overturn the death sentence.

“That’s the $64,000 question,” Allen said. “He is bound by the decisions made by the previous judge, unless he has some discretion, which he seems to think.”

Canepa later said the court “showed complete bias in this case.”

She also said she objected to “everything” the judge said during the hearing.

Now she and new special prosecutor Ron O’Brien must find a new deal.

O’Brien joins the state’s case with a lifetime of prosecutorial experience, particularly in complex, high-profile cases involving the death penalty.

He was Franklin County’s longest-serving prosecutor for 24 years and only left after losing re-election in November 2020 to his seventh term.

O’Brien also served as an assistant county attorney, Columbus city attorney and city attorney.

Billy Wagner’s wife and two sons were all convicted for their roles in the murders of the Rhoden and Gilley families and are serving prison sentences.

Two of them, his youngest son and his wife, are expected to testify against him, as they did during the trial of George Wagner IV.

It ended with quick verdicts of “guilty” on all 22 counts.

George Wagner IV is currently serving eight life sentences and 121 years in prison for 16 other charges.

Life sentences follow one another.

The death penalty was taken off the table after his brother and mother testified against him on behalf of the state.

George Wagner IV recently filed an appeal to overturn his conviction.

Gov. Mike DeWine called his trial “one of the longest trials, if not the longest, in Ohio history.”

Estimates from state and local officials put the costs at more than $4 million, all funded by the state of Ohio.

These taxpayer-funded expenses will only increase as George IV now appeals and his father heads to trial.

The victims of the April 2016 massacre were Christopher Rhoden Sr., 40; his older brother, Kenneth Rhoden, 44; his cousin, Gary Rhoden, 38; Chris Rhoden Sr.’s ex-wife, Dana Lynn Rhoden, 37, and their children: Clarence “Frankie” Rhoden, 20, Hanna May Rhoden, 19, Christopher Rhoden Jr., 16, and fiancée of Frankie, Hannah “Hazel” Gilley, 20.

Two infants and a young child were spared by the killers and abandoned at the scene of the murder: a 5-day-old girl, a 6-month-old boy and a 3-year-old boy.

Prosecutors said the motive for the killings was custody of Jake Wagner’s young daughter and one of the victims he confessed to shooting twice in the head, Hanna May Rhoden.

The young couple started dating when she was 13 and he was 18. She became pregnant with their daughter at age 15.

They separated in 2015 after the birth of their daughter in 2013.

Jake Wagner testified during his brother’s trial that he didn’t want their relationship to end.

Hanna Rhoden had a second child, a baby girl, with another man and was dating another man at the time of her murder.

Her baby was only five days old when the victims were found on the morning of April 22, 2016.

Jake Wagner testified at his brother’s trial that he shot most of the victims, including Hanna Rhoden while she was in bed breastfeeding her newborn.

He testified on the stand that he positioned her body after shooting her so that she could continue to breastfeed her newborn, whose life he spared.

He also said he picked up the shell casings and cell phones and took them away.

But, according to other testimonies, a shell casing was missing that investigators found under the baby’s crib.

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