OH - Pike Co, 8 in Rhoden Family Murdered Over Custody Issue, 4 Members Wagner Family Arrested #71

[iulia]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1570757592263147520

 

[Betty P]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1570757592263147520

Great! A BCI agent will testify. Hopefully they'll opt to have their video available.

I'll be in and out today, again.

 

[Niner]

Thank you for this, Niner! Its more helpful than ever. There are so many witnesses, but so little information coming out, with so many "opting out".

Glad to hear it is helpful!

 

[rescuemom]

TESTIMONY OF FAMILY FRIEND BRETT HATFIELD:

Brett said he knew there was a grow operation between Kenneth and Chris, and he said that there was a big drug deal going down “out west” that was supposed to happen but got canceled. The deal was with Billy Wagner and Chris Sr., who ran drugs together. According to Brett, it was for several hundred thousand dollars and involved pounds of marijuana. Billy and Chris started the trek out west in a truck but Chris got cold feet in Cincinnatti and bailed, Brett said. Chris called someone to pick him up and he assumes that Billy continued on, but did not know. Brett testified that after the murders, Billy said to people that a local man, Skid Montgomery was running drugs with Chris and Billy and that the two latter were cutting out Skid, so Skid had the Rhodens killed. The state said this was never found to be true.

Brett testified that Chris Sr., always had a lot of cash on him and that Brett saw Chris Sr. have $400,000 in a black bag on him at home one day. Another time, Brett said he knew Chris was into cockfighting and won $30,000 in a battle.

On cross, Brett said he saw cocaine in Chris Sr.’s safe and that it was likely for Gary Rhoden to use because Gary was a cocaine abuser, according to the testimony. Again, he was asked about the pot grow operation and he said that it would take 2-3 weeks for Chris to sell out of the pot he harvested every three months. Brett spoke of an unknown “business partner” Chris had in Cincinnati, but did not know the person’s name. The defense alluded it was a drug business partner.

DAY 4: Here's what you need to know about the fourth day of George Wagner IV's trial

Scioto Valley Guardian

sciotovalleyguardian.com

People have asked what made the Wagner's think they could get away with it? Part of their planning was to make it look drug related. The Wagner's knew that the commercial grows would lead the investigation that way, and away from them. They probably all sat around and as todays testimony revealed came up with a story where "Billy said to people that a local man, Skid Montgomery was running drugs with Chris and Billy and that the two latter were cutting out Skid, so Skid had the Rhodens killed."

And without the confessions, it could be a viable defense. George is pushing the defense that he and his family came up with.

The relevancy of the marijuana is it created an opportunity for the Wagner's to float the drug theory, and believe they could get away with the crime(s).

imo...of course.

Did he testify yesterday and opted out????

 

[Betty P]

Shane Hanshaw is up. BCI Agent.

 

[Betty P]

Shane is describing Chris Sr's house. First place he went.

Multiple bullet holes in front of house, window.
No bullet hole in front entrance door
Blood stains/spatter on door
Front door was open when blood letting occurred

Something occurred that caused blood to be expelled from that area. Spatter stain or blood stain.

Screen door had bullet holes, front door did not

 

[joe jones]

Agent Shane Hanshaw BCI, 8AM reports to Piketon police dept, we knew 3 scenes, I was assigned to scene 1, 4777 Hill Rd, 12.20pm arrived, Agent Price also assigned, I was primary, I spoke to officers on scene, what had happened, was told who had been inside, told Dept Ball and Music (sp) and who had initially found victims, would have got elimination standards, ie fingerprints and shoe prints from known people who had gone in, large crime scene vehicles I took to scene, conditions partly cloudy, temp 72 degrees

saw the residence, lots of buildings, vehicles, parked crime scene vehicles outside crime scene tape, looked into trailer - "quick peak" took extensive photographs, have reviewed pictures, front porch looked inside, multiple bullet holes front of house, bullet hole in screen but not front entrance door, front door open when bloodletting began, as blood on door, blood splatter on door down on the lower portion of door, (pointing out stains - many stains) front entrance door, front porch (pointing out bullet hole in screen door) multiple bullet holes (pointed out again) and pointing out transfer stains drag marks, partial footwear impression also pointed out inside home, took photos from front porch, we had 3D scanners to scan interior and exterior before I went in to document and measure scene, had to wait for scanner to be brought to scene, whilst waiting told a SW obtained, we began to do exterior walkthrough to document scene taking photos, (Agent said they always try to get a SW) I want to be able to walk jury through crime, and to document evidence, went into woods, roadway,

 

[ColMustard]

Shane is describing Chris Sr's house. First place he went.

Multiple bullet holes in front of house, window.
No bullet hole in front entrance door
Blood stains/spatter on door
Front door was open when blood letting occurred

Something occurred that caused blood to be expelled from that area. Spatter stain or blood stain.

Screen door had bullet holes, front door did not

So those were bullet holes we saw in the window left of the porch.

 

[pcrum12]

I hope that Mtn Dew Can has George IV dna or fingerprints

 

[joe jones]

Agent Hanshaw direct continued,

State handed him pictures he took that day, A1 postbox, with crime scene tape, A2 cars and CRsr garage, A3 more cars and CRsr garage, silver truck, A5 garage, cars silver truck, junk, A6 more cars and garage, other agents working FR scene, semi-trailer in this photo, A7 cars, semi-trailer, bed of silver truck, A8 pile of junk, and cars, A9 followed small roadway looking for possible footwear, A10 Looking up to residence, down a slight hill, A12 Photo of residence, A13 looking up to residence photo of residence, A14 roof of residence, saw pens for chickens, A15 trees, looking up to residence, A16 see containers, cars, out buildings, A17 outbuildings, A18 moving toward residence, out buildings, cars, A19 pan out to take photos of everything, A20 lots of cars equipment, A21 looking towards large barn, animals, dogs in there, large livestock, A22 large outbuilding near to residence, A23 similar to A22, A25 silver truck building, A27 see crime scene tape, A29 see crime scene tape round residence, A30 back to union hill rd. A32 vehicles and towards mailbox A32 silver truck seen in A3, A33 similar to A32. A54 orange mower in front of residence A56 corner or home, front door, A57 residence window open, A58 corner of home A59 behind residence A60 corner of home and barn A61 closer to home A63 condition of doors and windows A65 corner of home A67 other end of home exterior of home A68 porch in background A69 back to front of residence, noticed various pieces of evidence I would like to collect as I walked around A94 porch, mower A95 close up mountain dew can, A96 close up of can, collected it, 486 collected can in evidence bag photo, and showing mountain dew can to jury (small bit of levity when gloves wouldn't fit agent so he could open evidence bag to show jury) explaining to jury how he collected evidence, first photograph item he was dressed in tybeck sp suit and booties over shoes and gloves, changed gloves after collecting every piece of evidence, document and package evidence, secure evidence in crime scene vehicles, each item given unique ID, can item number one have number 1 placard in photo, item could go to storage or lab, submission sheet for lab, they give it their lab number, I submitted some evidence to lab, Stipulation 486 Item 1 contains GR DNA Sidebar mountain dew can found in front of CRsr home

 

[Betty P]

He's talking about them all being dressed in Tyvek suits, boots, gloves, etc. Remember watching the helicopter video that day with all the BCI agents walking around the properties in those suits.

 

[iulia]

I hope that Mtn Dew Can has George IV dna or fingerprints

Ahh, it has Gary Rhoden's DNA on it.

 

[sunshineray]

Shane Hanshaw is up. BCI Agent.

Watching and getting a bit dizzy with the camera going up and down for every picture! His audio is perfectly clear and loud and they're just walking the property so it seems quite ridiculously that the camera needs to be so vigilant, IMO

 

[sunshineray]

And now when he gets to the home outside the camera is not showing every shot!?

 

[ohioexpat63]

Courtroom definitely has character.

 

[ColMustard]

I don't understand the significance of submitting DNA of one of the victims, it's not disputed that the victim was present. Unless maybe there's defendant DNA to be presented next?

 

[Betty P]

I'm back and forth watching some. A lot of what they're discussing as evidence shows Gary Rhoden, including blood, correct? Is that blood on the front porch?

I think what they're doing here is they're laying out a map of the evidence collected at 4077 UHR, combine with photos, perspective, DNA evidence, etc. Ultimately, I think all of this is going to be combined into the FARO scans. That will give everyone a 3D "picture" or video of each part of the crime scene. In this case, it could show video of outside of Chris's trailer, where Chris stood, where Gary was, where the killers were when they shot each victim. It might also show how many killers there were and where they were standing when they shot the victims.

At this point, AFAIK, the BCI agent said the other agents hadn't arrived with the FARO scanner yet.

Shouldn't speculate, but it looks like the victims were outside the trailer before they were killed. Will see if this matches up with Jake's confession

 

[joe jones]

Agent Hanshaw direct continued

A97 photo of path to CR sr Rd.

Placard 2 in photo and Placard 3 in photo, A98 cigarette butt, collected it, (we use small disposable tweezers to collect small items),
A101 item 3 partial cigarette butt,
A488 evidence bag with cigarette butt in,
A102 photo of Item 4 placard
A103 Item 4 partial cigarette butt and ash from cigarette (photo)
A489 partial cigarette butt
Stipulation 487/8/9 DNA Item 7 mixture of DNA, - GR DNA in mixture, (cigarette butt)
A545 shows diagram of scene, and biological evidence marked on it,
Biological evidence on front porch. FRONT PORCH Item no 11, 12, 13 faint traces of blood,
A143 close up of item 11 possible blood on step, put fresh gloves on to collect each sample of blood one sterile swab to collect sample, collected 2 swabs for 11,
A496 item no 11, 2 swabs, evidence shown to jury, packaged sealed and released to another agent or lab,
suspected blood on sidewalk, Item 12, collected,
A497 blood evidence package shown to jury, 2 swabs of suspected blood,
Item 13 suspected blood in grass,
Item 13 evidence of 2 swabs shown to jury, some sent to lab,
Stipulated Item 13 sent to lab, human blood of GR. item 11 and 12 not sent to lab, (not totally sure it was item 13 sent to lab, where GR DNA was found but think so)

 

[Chelly]

Camera has panned the courtroom gallery several times showing the Rhoden family sitting together, members of the press and empty seats.

 

[Birdnerd71]

Agent Hanshaw direct continued,

State handed him pictures he took that day, A1 postbox, with crime scene tape, A2 cars and CRsr garage, A3 more cars and CRsr garage, silver truck, A5 garage, cars silver truck, junk, A6 more cars and garage, other agents working FR scene, semi-trailer in this photo, A7 cars, semi-trailer, bed of silver truck, A8 pile of junk, and cars, A9 followed small roadway looking for possible footwear, A10 Looking up to residence, down a slight hill, A12 Photo of residence, A13 looking up to residence photo of residence, A14 roof of residence, saw pens for chickens, A15 trees, looking up to residence, A16 see containers, cars, out buildings, A17 outbuildings, A18 moving toward residence, out buildings, cars, A19 pan out to take photos of everything, A20 lots of cars equipment, A21 looking towards large barn, animals, dogs in there, large livestock, A22 large outbuilding near to residence, A23 similar to A22, A25 silver truck building, A27 see crime scene tape, A29 see crime scene tape round residence, A30 back to union hill rd. A32 vehicles and towards mailbox A32 silver truck seen in A3, A33 similar to A32. A54 orange mower in front of residence A56 corner or home, front door, A57 residence window open, A58 corner of home A59 behind residence A60 corner of home and barn A61 closer to home A63 condition of doors and windows A65 corner of home A67 other end of home exterior of home A68 porch in background A69 back to front of residence, noticed various pieces of evidence I would like to collect as I walked around A94 porch, mower A95 close up mountain dew can, A96 close up of can, collected it, 486 collected can in evidence bag photo, and showing mountain dew can to jury (small bit of levity when gloves wouldn't fit agent so he could open evidence bag to show jury) explaining to jury how he collected evidence, first photograph item he was dressed in tybeck sp suit and booties over shoes and gloves, changed gloves after collecting every piece of evidence, document and package evidence, secure evidence in crime scene vehicles, each item given unique ID, can item number one have number 1 placard in photo, item could go to storage or lab, submission sheet for lab, they give it their lab number, I submitted some evidence to lab, Stipulation 486 Item 1 contains GR DNA Sidebar mountain dew can found in front of CRsr home

Great descriptions!