The long-anticipated first trial in Ohio's most complex and costly criminal case was delayed Monday due to the illness of a key lawyer in the case, authorities said.
Opening statements were set to begin Tuesday in the mass-murder trial of George Wagner IV, 30, in the 2016 shooting deaths of eight members of the Rhoden family in rural Pike County. Wagner faces eight counts of aggravated murder in the slayings. He has pleaded not guilty.
Pike County Common Pleas Judge Randy Deering granted a request to delay proceedings until Sept. 12 “due to the illness of a person involved in the trial.” Defense lawyers and prosecutors agreed to the delay, according to the court docket.
Special Prosecutor Angela Canepa, who has been involved in the case since 2016 and argued the majority of the motions, is ill, said two people familiar with the request. Canepa is expected to deliver opening statements and continue to be the lead prosecutor when the trial resumes.
A jury of nine women and three men, as well as six alternates, spent last week visiting nearly a dozen locations that prosecutors allege are in the key in the case, including the properties that once housed the three trailers and campers in which the victims were slain. Jurors, taken together by school bus, also visited two farms that were the scenes of multiple evidence searches over the six-year investigation.
Wagner, his younger brother, Edward "Jake" Wagner; and their parents, George "Billy" Wagner, 51, and Angela Wagner, 51, were all charged in the deaths of Christopher “Chris” Rhoden Sr., 40; Chris Rhoden’s former wife, Dana Manley Rhoden, 37; their children, Clarence “Frankie” Rhoden, 20, Hanna May Rhoden, 19, and Christopher “Chris” Rhoden Jr., 16; Frankie’s fiancee, Hannah Hazel Gilley, 20; Christopher Sr.’s brother Kenneth Rhoden, 44; and their cousin Gary Rhoden, 38.
Prosecutors say the motive was a custody dispute between Jake Wagner and Hanna Rhoden, who share a daughter. George Wagner's defense lawyers are expected to argue that their client did not shoot anyone and thus should not be convicted.
Jake Wagner and his mother pleaded guilty in 2021 in plea deals that require them testify against Wagner and his father, who is expected to go to trial later this year. Billy Wagner has pleaded not guilty.
The trial is expected to last six to eight weeks. Prosecutors said they have 250 witnesses, however not all of them will be called to testify.
Read an overview of the crime and the case here.
Follow @chrisgraves on Twitter for updates.
Questions to students:
This post uses anonymous sources, which you will not be allowed to do. Can you find that reference above? Why did I have to use unnamed sources in this story? You are my editor: What questions would you ask me before using this information? Would you have allowed the use — explain why or why not.
As you can see, as coverage continues the level of detail lessens. Why do you think reporters begin to compact information as they continue to write about a case?