WAVERLY, Ohio — In matter-of-fact chilling detail, Jake Wagner recounted Monday how he systematically killed five members of a southern Ohio family in 2016, citing as a motive his fear that his then toddler-aged daughter may be molested.
Wagner told jurors and a packed courtroom of spectators that his father first proposed killing his former long-time girlfriend, Hanna Rhoden, 19, after he and his family had grown increasingly worried about the daughter the couple shared.
“I blowed up and told him that was the mother of my child and stormed off,'' he said.
That changed a few weeks later, in January 2016, when he said Rhoden did not take his concerns about their daughter seriously:
“I had no other choice but to kill Hanna.”
Wagner, 29, pleaded guilty to 23 charges including eight counts of aggravated murder in April 2021 in a plea agreement that requires him to testify against his family members in exchange for prosecutors removing the death penalty against all of them.
He began that process Monday in the most anticipated day of the trial of his older brother, George Wagner IV, 31, who faces aggravated murder, burglary and conspiracy charges in the deaths of eight members of the Rhoden family. His lawyers said in their opening statements that their client was not with Jake Wagner and their father, George "Billy" Wagner, on the murder spree.
But in his all-day testimony, which is set to resume Tuesday, Jake Wagner detailed how he and his brother hid in the bed of a pickup truck he modified, how his brother did not follow the plan to shoot the first victim, Chris Rhoden Sr., 40. He also testified that his brother was inside at least one other crime scene and waited near another.
'Too late to break down now'
Wagner said he and his brother were armed and hid under a pickup truck and waited for their father to bring Chris Rhoden out of his trailer, on Union Hill Road. His brother was to fire his SKS rifle, but when he didn't or couldn't, Wagner said he grabbed the rifle, fired one shot, missed and panicked. Then, he said, he closed his eyes and fired a second shot at Chris Rhoden Sr's mid-section.
He said he heard a couple gunshots from inside the trailer, his father came out of Rhoden's trailer having a “nervous breakdown.”
Jake Wagner said he told his father to calm down: "It was too late to break down now,”
Wagner, who remain shackled at the ankles and waist during his testimony, said he then went into the trailer and saw the bodies of Rhoden and his cousin, Gary Rhoden, in a back bedroom. He said it looked like the bodies were dragged to the back. But he testified that he didn't move them.
He dug through Chris Rhoden's pockets and got his keys and cell phone. He also took the phone out of Gary Rhoden's pocket and covered the men with a blanket before leaving and locking the door behind him.
Wagner said the threesome walked to the trailer Frankie Rhoden, 20, shared with Hannah Hazel Gilley, 20, and checked the doors to get in. They were locked, so he said, they went back to Chris Rhoden's trailer and got into his truck and drove past the trailer Dana Manley Rhoden, 37, shared with her children, Hanna and Christopher Rhoden Jr., 16. She wasn't home, so they drove to Kenneth Rhoden's trailer, which was on Left Folk Road.
Wagner did not say why they did not stop at Kenneth Rhoden's trailer, opting to drive back to Frankie Rhoden's trailer, where Wagner said he tried to pry open a back door with a hunting knife, but it broke. He said he noticed an open window and his father hoisted him up so he could pull himself inside.
Once inside, he said he saw Frankie Rhoden's son, Brentley, then 3, asleep on the couch. He walked past the boy to get to the bedroom. He testified that he first shot Rhoden in the head and then leaned over him and shot Gilley in the head. Both were asleep, he said. He said he did not see the couple's 6-month-old, laying between them sleeping.
Repositioned body to allow breastfeeding
Wagner said they traveled by truck back to Dana Rhoden's trailer and the three entered through an unlocked door. He testified that he saw Dana Rhoden awake, looking at Facebook on her phone. He said a cry from her days-old granddaughter made her turn, at which point, she saw him and he shot her in the head.
He said he then turned down the hallway and shot Hanna Rhoden who had given birth to her second daughter just five days before. As she propped herself up on her arm, apparently to breastfeed her daughter, Wagner said she looked at him. He shot her in the head. He went back and shot her mother again before he returned to Hanna Rhoden's room, where he shot her again as well.
Showing little emotion, he testified that her body had fallen halfway off the bed and so he repositioned it.
"It may not make sense,” Wagner said, “but I was concerned [the infant] would starve to death.”
He said he was startled when he came out of the bedrooms to find his father and brother near the kitchen area of the home. From there, he said he walked to the opposite side of the trailer and into Christopher Rhoden Jr.'s bedroom, where he stood over him and shot the 16-year-old in the head. At that time, he said, his brother and father, were near the front door.
Wagner said he collected shell casings in each bedroom, put them in his pocket and also grabbed their cell phones before they left the trailer. He said he thought it was about 3:15 a.m.
The threesome, driving Chris Rhoden's truck and their own, then drove to Kenneth Rhoden's trailer. He said his brother pulled off the side of the road and he and his father drove up to the trailer. His father got out, knocked on the door before going inside. Wagner said he saw a muzzle flash and his father came out.
From there, Wagner in calm and measured tones, recounted how they drove Chris Rhoden Sr's truck back to his home and drove back to their Peebles farmhouse.
Wagner, wearing a mismatched jail uniform that included his jail ID card affixed to the shirt, struggled at times to recall details and often asked special prosecutor Angela Canepa to repeat her questions.
When she showed Wagner crime scene photographs, he said: "I have a memory block that won't allow me to remember any of the bodies.'
Initial plan to kill changed, expanded
Wagner said he had grown increasingly worried about the daughter they shared after the child told him that she had been locked in a bedroom and that she was clingy to him when he had custody of him.
“She’d say ‘Daddy, please don’t make me go.’”
He grew dismayed, he said, when she did not take his worries as seriously as he thought she said.
“What if your carelessness leads to my daughter being molested?” he said he asked Rhoden.
He said Rhoden replied: "We’ll have to deal with it."
At the same time, he began to see a lawyer about drawing up a formal, legal custody agreement.
His mother showed him a private Facebook message between Hanna Rhoden and the mother of George Wagner's ex-wife during which Rhoden said she would not sign custody papers, saying that the Wagner's would have to kill her first.
It was at that point, he testified, that the family began to plot her demise.
Wagner said his first plan was to kill her and her boyfriend, Corey Holdren, and stage it as a murder-suicide. But, he said his father didn't think that was a good idea and told him that if they killed Hanna, they would have to kill her father, brother and uncle, who would seek revenge.
They would, Wagner testified, come after them "like snipers on a hill."
Wagner acknowledged that they knew killing three men and Hanna would also mean killing others because they lived with the victims and that they didn't want to leave any witnesses.
Wagner will take the stand again Tuesday in the eighth week of the trial. His testimony is expected to last through Tuesday and possibly into Wednesday, when Wagner IV's lawyers will cross examine him.
Questions for students:
Discuss the lede to this story. It is a bit long. Do you agree that it works. Why or why not?
The nut graph is a bit hidden in this story. Where do you think it is? How might your rewrite this.
There are several approaches this story could have taken. Write a different lede, second paragraph and nut graph. Discuss why you picked the approach you did.
I think the lede works. Even though the lede is long, it gets the point across and with such strong and detailed wording, it draws readers in.
I believe the nut graph can be found here, "Wagner, 29, pleaded guilty to 23 charges, including eight counts of aggravated murder in April 2021 in a plea agreement that requires him to testify against his family members in exchange for prosecutors removing the death penalty against all of them." In this paragraph, it clearly explains the context of the story and provides a "why" to the testimony he gave on the killings.
Write a new lede, second paragraph and nut graph:
"It was too late to break down now,” said Jake Wagner…
1. I think that the lede works because it is clear and it gets right to the point of what the story is about to tell you. It is a little bit lengthy but I think that it worse in the sense that it is suspenseful. It makes readers want to continue further and learn more.
2. I believe the nut graph is in the eighth graph where it reads "But in his all-day testimony, which is set to resume Tuesday, Jake Wagner detailed how he and his brother hid in the bed of a pickup truck he modified, how his brother did not follow the plan to shoot the first victim, Chris Rhoden Sr., 40. He also testified that…