Pike County massacre: Final suspect awaiting trial wants to fire his attorney
Video above is from previous coverage
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WAVERLY, Ohio (WXIX) - The final suspect awaiting trial in the 2016 Pike County massacre wants his court-appointed defense attorneys removed, claiming they do not believe he is innocent.
George “Billy” Wagner III, 55, filed a handwritten motion in Pike County Common Pleas Court requesting new legal counsel and an immediate hearing, court records show.
This follows a letter Wagner sent the judge last month complaining that he was being kept in the dark and that “the only thing anybody tells me is a bunch of lies.”
Wagner demanded a hearing with Visiting Pike County Common Pleas Court Judge Jonathan Hein.
The judge set a hearing for Oct. 1 at 1:30 p.m.
Replacing Wagner’s defense team will most certainly delay his Jan. 11, 2027 trial date.
His murder trial has already been delayed several times due to various legal challenges.
Newly appointed counsel would require months to review voluminous discovery spanning the decade-long case, FOX19 NOW Legal Analyst Jay Clark, a veteran criminal defense attorney, told FOX19 NOW last month.
In Ohio, when a criminal defendant asks for new legal representation, the judge has a duty to conduct a brief inquiry into the reasons for the dissatisfaction.
Wagner contends his lead attorney Mark Collins and co-counsel Thomas Hayes have a conflict of interest, doubt his innocence, and have refused to submit motions he requested.
Collins has repeatedly declined to comment on Wagner’s letter.
Wagner faces 22 charges—including eight counts of aggravated murder with death penalty specifications—in the April 2016 execution-style shooting deaths of eight members of the Rhoden and Gilley families.
The victims are: Christopher Rhoden Sr., 40; Kenneth Rhoden, 44; Gary Rhoden, 38; Dana Lynn Rhoden, 37; Clarence “Frankie” Rhoden, 20; Hanna May Rhoden, 19; Christopher Rhoden Jr., 16; and Frankie’s fiancée, Hannah Gilley, 20.
Judge hasn’t revealed new trial location
Wagner is the last of four family members to stand trial.
A Pike County jury convicted Billy Wagner’s oldest son, George Wagner IV, of eight counts of aggravated murder and 14 other charges, following his trial in the fall of 2022.
The 34-year-old is appealing his sentence: Eight consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole, plus 121 years.
His trial lasted just over three months (13 weeks), had some 60 witnesses and nearly 5,000 pieces of evidence. The jury reached the guilty verdict on Nov. 30, 2022.
At the time, Gov. Mike DeWine called it “one of the longest, if not the longest, trials in Ohio history. ”
His wife, Angela Wagner, and their youngest son, Edward “Jake” Wagner, both pleaded guilty to their roles in the killings and agreed to testify.
It remains unclear where Billy Wagner’s trial will be held when it does finally happen.
So far, Judge Hein has not revealed which county it will be in.
Last month, he denied a victim representative’s motion asking him to reveal the location for the final suspect’s upcoming trial.
It was filed last month by “T.R.,” a surviving relative of the eight victims acting as the representative for all of them and their families.
In his denial, the judge cited a need to balance eight victims’ hardships with George “Billy” Wagner III’s right to a fair trial.
Complete Coverage | Pike County Massacre
READ JUDGE’S DECISION HERE:
State of Ohio, taxpayers footing bill for legal costs
The legal defense for all of the Wagners - Billy, his wife and their two sons - is being funded by the state of Ohio.
All four Wagner family members were ruled indigents who lack the financial means to hire private attorneys.
That means all their defense attorneys, expert witnesses and court expenses are paid for through taxpayer money.
The Pike County massacre remains the state’s largest and most expensive homicide case to date.
The investigation and prosecution have cost at least $4 million so far, and the state is administering the cost to prevent crippling the small county’s annual budget, according to local and state officials.
The change of venue is just one in a series of decisions Judge Hein made once he was appointed to the case that the state tried to overturn.
The appeals court has upheld his decision on the change of venue but overturned his other major decisions:
- Sentencing Jake Wagner, 33, and Angela Wagner, 55, for their roles in the massacre over the state and victims’ families’ objections before they fulfilled their plea deal obligations to the state to testify at Billy Wagner’s upcoming trial
- Removing the death penalty as a sentencing option for Billy Wagner.
Families still wait for justice
April marked the 10th anniversary of the Pike County massacre.
The victims’ relatives, who are still seeking justice and closure, did not speak publicly.
Most of the victims were gunned down execution-style as they slept in their homes overnight April 21-22, 2016.
They are: Christopher Rhoden Sr., 40; his older brother, Kenneth Rhoden, 44; his cousin, Gary Rhoden, 38; Chris Rhoden Sr.’s former wife, Dana Lynn Rhoden, 37, and their children: Clarence “Frankie” Rhoden, 20, Hanna May Rhoden, 19, Christopher Rhoden Jr., 16, and Frankie’s fiancé, Hannah “Hazel” Gilley, 20.
Two infants and a toddler were spared by the killers and left behind at the murder scenes: a 5-day-old baby girl, a 6-month-old baby boy and a 3-year-old boy.
One of the victims’ relatives, Dana Rhoden’s father Leonard Maney, died in 2021 and never saw justice for his daughter.
Massacre motive: Custody of young girl
Prosecutors said the motive in the murders was the custody of a child who was not at the murder scenes: the young daughter of Jake Wagner and one of the victims he confessed to shooting in the head twice, his ex-girlfriend, Hanna May Rhoden.
Jake Wagner and Hanna May Rhoden began dating when she was 13 and he was 18.
She became pregnant at 15 with Sophia, who was born in the fall of 2013.
Hanna May Rhoden broke up with him in 2015. He confirmed when he testified at his brother’s trial that he didn’t want the relationship to end.
She had a second child, a baby girl, with another man just days before the massacre.
The Wagner family purposely waited until after that baby was born before carrying out their deadly attack on the Rhodens, Jake Wagner testified.
Sophia was at home with Angela Wagner at the time of the homicides.
After the killings, Jake Wagner was temporarily awarded custody of the girl.
She was placed in the custody of child protective services when the Wagners were arrested in November of 2018.
Today, she is 12 years old.
Her whereabouts are not publicly revealed to protect her privacy.
Jake Wagner says his dad shot 5, killing 3
Jake Wagner testified for the state during his older brother’s trial as part of his plea deal with prosecutors.
He said under oath he personally shot and killed five of the victims, including the mother of his child, Hanna May.
In graphic detail, he described killing her mother, two of her brothers and her oldest brother’s fiancée.
Jake Wagner also revealed he shot and injured her father, Christopher Rhoden, Sr.
He told the jury his brother was supposed to shoot Christopher Rhoden Sr., but froze, so he took his brother’s SKS rifle and pulled the trigger.
Jake and Angela Wagner’s testimony during George Wagner IV’s trial detailed Billy Wagner’s involvement in the homicides, alleging he killed three of the victims and shot two additional ones.
According to Jake Wagner’s testimony, Billy Wagner shot and killed Christopher Rhoden Sr., Gary Rhoden and Kenneth Rhoden and shot Frankie Rhoden and Hannah Hazel Gilley.
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