OH - Pike Co - 8 in Rhoden Family Murdered Over Custody Issue - 4 Wagner Family Members Arrested #84

[Myland]

George insisted under cross his mother and brother lied during their testimony and confessions to prosecutors, prompting Canepa to sarcastically tell him: “Everybody is lying except you.”

She succeeded in getting several admissions from George including:

• Using an inaccurate (former) address to obtain his Ohio commercial driver’s license;
• Listing an inaccurate (former) address on forms related to his gun ownership, a federal offense punishable by up to 10 years in prison. He told her he was advised to do this because his driver’s license still listed his former address);
• He responded “We paid off our debts with it” when she asked him about a purposely set fire (arson) at one of the Wagner’s former homes, on Bethel Hill Road in Peebles. At first, George told her he didn’t really profit from it (the insurance payout);
• Not reporting his mother for creating fake receipts to turn in these bogus fire loss claims;
• Hunting at night “thousands of times.” Deer hunting hours in Ohio are 30 minutes before sunrise to 30 minutes after sunset, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources;
• Calling his toddler niece (Jake Wagner’s daughter Sophie) a “b----.” But, George explained on the stand: “After five or six days on caffeine, you say a lot of things you don’t mean.”;
• Failing to notify the mother of his young child know they moved back to Pike County from Alaska in 2018 before the waiting period was up to get an abandonment ruling against her.
  George Wagner IV concludes testimony at his murder trial

Jmo the defense also had him testify he was a thief and committed fraud numerous times. He never stole when from anyone we know of that was present and would have been an opportunity to kill someone during those crimes. I don’t believe they linked theft to murder. Jmo

 

[Chelly]

Lawyers still going over evidence this morning. Live link

WATCH LIVE: First Trial in Pike County Massacre

The first defendant will stand trial for allegedly helping kill eight members of an Ohio family.

lawandcrime.com

 

[MyTinkieGirl]

IMO, George is lying straight through his teeth. Hopefully, the jury is well aware of the fact that this family was so intertwined in each other's business and lives that not one of them could break wind without all of them knowing it.
I'll even go out on a limb and say Angie knew it 5 seconds before it even happened.

 

[arielilane]

https://twitter.com/CFranciscoWCPO

Pike Co. massacre trial continues. Jurors will be back at 1:00 this afternoon. Right now, prosecutors are continuing the process of submitting exhibits. It has taken days to do this. That’s why prosecution hasn’t officially rested even though defense has called witnesses.

Exhibits are marked with letters and numbers. They have as many as JJJJ. right now, they’ve gone through JJJ. so… progress

 

[Chelly]

Youtube link to today's session

 

[arielilane]

https://twitter.com/Angenette5

WATCH: OH v. George Wagner IV - Day 46 - Arguments over exhibits. Jury in at 1 ET

Arguments over exhibits. One an exhibit about banking records. One of the exhibits had listed an account belonging to #GeorgeWagnerIV owning a bank account with his mother. It was actually Billy W. who is George Wagner III.

Special prosecutor Angie Canepa says banking records showed the Wagners functioned as a unit and did everything together. John P. Parker says if that's the standard, everyone in southeast Ohio would be indicted. He said it's common in that area

 

[arielilane]

No recent tweets from James Pilcher at this time. Will update accordingly.

 

[pittsburghgirl]

This is just my impression of George4.
On the plus side, he was very disciplined on the stand and for the most part, stuck to answers he thought were safe and reasonable. Of course he denied the murders.

But take, for example, his reasoning for not wanting/allowing TC to see their son--"because she wanted to bring her mother and her sister." That's so terribly controlling, considering that the visits would happen either under supervision or (perhaps) at a local place like a McDonald's where the boy would be nowhere near someone with a history of molestation. I truly do not believe the story about TC's mother "holding her down." TC was very clear that she did not want BW anywhere near her molester. There is no reason to keep a mother, grandmother and aunt away from short supervised or nearby public visits with the mother's child. Zero, none. G4 was violating the custody agreement which required reasonable access to the child. And yes, I know this case is riddled with victims of sexual abuse, but there is no reason to perpetrate that abuse by denying victims access to their children. TC and Hanna and Beth had done nothing wrong to suggest they were molesters or enablers of that behavior. Period. This litany of victim blaming is highly offensive. Edited to add: Given his contempt for TC's mother and sisters, and considering Jake's reasons for murdering Hanna's family, TC was right to fear for her life. There are a lot of dots to connect here.

And it was gobsmacking that he "didn't have anyone but Angela" to leave his son with when the son has a mother, after all the terrible things he said about her. And that he thought HE should be raising Sophia instead of Jake, especially when his testimony is that he was rarely home, only got about an hour of sleep at night (driving big rigs, very safe) and spent most of his time when not working poaching deer with illegal gear.

Yeah, he likes to kill things when he has an advantage. There is no way a man this angry and arrogant would have missed all that prep for the murders. No way. And all those deer head trophies on the wall. Makes it so believable that the tattoo isn't the only kind of "trophy" he could take away from the slaughter of 8 innocents./s

In my view, G4 has a "tell." He lies and then closes his eyes and looks down. He also came across to me as someone who is contemptuous of others, including the prosecutor. The insistence on "can I tell the whole story?" in a contemptuous, challenging tone, instead of answering questions can be contrasted with the testimony of TC and Beth, who took even very personal questions about traumatic behavior head on, eyes up, and without anger or contempt for the prosecutor.

I wouldn't be surprised to see TC on the stand again in rebuttal. I believed her. She was a strong witness. But the closing should be a lot of visual aids about the lies G4 told on the stand, about the changing stories and contradictions.

 

[Cool Cats]

I do remember those commercials. That is the exact same thing I said. Where's the beef? There is no substance to the states case against George. When Canepa asked him what should happen to someone who would kill 8 innocent people , two of them nursing mothers, you could see the feverent anger in Georges face when he said "Anyone who did this should be given death," You could tell he meant every word of it. Powerful statement in view that his brother and mother have confessed to doing it.

JMO

But what else could he say? Give them ice cream? Of course he had to act angry and appalled at 8 murders. George says what he needs to say on the stand to get acquited. This is to impress the jury.

I'm just a good 'ole boy brought up by a bad 'ole daddy. Yet he also said daddy was a "teddy bear" in Montana.

Normally the prosecution has a defendant's LE interview on transcript and has the defendant read the transcript when what the defendant says, on the stand, does not match what he said in the LE interview. This helps discredit or create doubt about all the defendant's testamony.

This is really strange Canepa isn't doing this. Why?

Where's the "beef?" Meaning that transcript. Floating out in "La La" Land?

2 Cents

 

[arielilane]

15 minute recess (went back to listen in). Missed it as I am just tuning in.

 

[justtrish]

They are on a 15 minute recess and I heard the judge ask if we are on pace to get them done and they all said yes. Assuming that meant get the admitting of evidence before the 1pm jury returning time.

 

[Antimony]

Correct me if I'm wrong but my memory tells me there was no VIDEO of the MT interviews but there was AUDIO. We heard the Audio of Angela's interview. I think there's audio of George at MT interview. I want to know WHY the state wont play it.

AUDIO BUT NO VIDEO ON THE INTERVIEW?
Lens cap left on.
Seen it done many times.

 

[Pru2U]

Jmo the defense also had him testify he was a thief and committed fraud numerous times. He never stole when from anyone we know of that was present and would have been an opportunity to kill someone during those crimes. I don’t believe they linked theft to murder. Jmo

She wasn’t trying to link theft to murder.

He cheated, stole, participated in arson and insurance fraud, he poached wild animals - all dishonest, immoral, unethical and illegal acts. The link is to his dishonesty. A man who lived every single day of his life - deeply enmeshed within a dishonest family doing and taking whatever they wanted by dishonest means is not suddenly constrained by honesty while he is fighting for his life. He’s a scrapper. He is going to say whatever he thinks will take to save himself.

It’s about dishonesty.

 

[Chelly]

They are on a 15 minute recess and I heard the judge ask if we are on pace to get them done and they all said yes. Assuming that meant get the admitting of evidence before the 1pm jury returning time.

Yes. Judge said "You know how many more you have. Are we on pace to gettin' them done". Defense and Prosecutors answered "yes".

 

[altojack]

She doesn't have any evidence against him to be tough with. All she can do is try to damage his credibility.

JMO

It is looking that way. I'm lost today as fell asleep waiting to start and now fiddling around to go back to watch what I've missed.

 

[arielilane]

Atty Parker reminds me of that kid in school that you could never stand, MOO.

 

[Chelly]

I wonder how the Thanksgiving holiday will fit into jury deliberations.

 

[Betty P]

Jmo the defense also had him testify he was a thief and committed fraud numerous times. He never stole when from anyone we know of that was present and would have been an opportunity to kill someone during those crimes. I don’t believe they linked theft to murder. Jmo

He also lied that he had never seen the ugly Walmart shoes that Angie bought for him and Jake, but he's on security video riding in the car when Angie went to buy them. Angie testified that both boys wore the shoes the night of the murders and later burned them.

 

[rsd1200]

Well if he has a child's mentality maybe he couldn't bring himself to kill another human being. How many children do you know that are murderers?

I thought he did fine on the stand and was very believable, so far, even though he was very nervous, which is very understandable. But I will reserve judgement until the prosecution finishes cross before I render an opinion.

I am surprised a little that they put him on the stand. P&N must be very confident he told them the truth and that he was not involved.

JMO

I thought he did well too. Out of the three, I found him the most believable and "unpolished". He has no idea what questions to expect from the prosecution no matter how well his attorneys prepare him to testify (and yes, that's part of it, preparing your client to speak in front of a group of people who are there to judge them). Prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges, LEOs, BCI members, all have a lot of background in speaking at trials. The defendants in trials may have never spoken publicly prior to their court date. Gw4, like JW, was kept home, home-schooled, his marriage run by his mother, and as a child, played only with kids on BBL and FWF. Very controlled life. No wonder he wanted to drive a truck. JW was the good boy who didn't rebel against his family's lifestyle, G4 seems he's being portrayed as a "bad kid" for wanting more and rebelling against his family's lifestyle. One that obviously elevated good boy JW over GW4. Who wouldn't want away from AW and her scam of a dog, pony, and pig show farm?

 

[Chelly]

Judge just admitted truck insurance claims evidence denying objection by defense. Arguing over time line of purchases evidence now.