Billy Wagner’s trial for Rhoden family massacre delayed till 2025

WAVERLY, Ohio (WCMH) — The Wagner family patriarch’s trial for the killing of the Rhoden family has been delayed until 2025.

George “Billy” Wagner III, the last Wagner awaiting prosecution for the 2016 shooting of eight Rhoden family members, was originally slated to go to trial on May 6. But at a status conference Thursday, defense attorney Mark Collins requested the trial be delayed, citing fellow attorneys’ health and personal issues and the receipt of 16,000 pages of court transcripts.

Judge Alan Corbin continued the trial until Jan. 6, 2025.

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Billy Wagner, 52, faces five charges of aggravated murder, having been accused of helping his sons, Edward “Jake” Wagner and George Wagner IV, kill members of the Rhoden family in their homes nearly eight years ago. On the morning of April 22, 2016, eight Rhodens were found dead; most had been shot while they slept. They included Christopher Rhoden Sr., 40; Dana Rhoden, 37; Clarence “Frankie” Rhoden, 20; Hanna Rhoden, 19; Christopher Rhoden Jr., 16; Hannah Gilley, 20; Kenneth Rhoden, 44; and Gary Rhoden, 38.

Prosecutors argued during Wagner IV’s trial in 2022 that the massacre was a meticulously planned killing that stemmed from a custody dispute between Jake Wagner and Hanna Rhoden. Their child, then an infant, was found unharmed, as were two other young children.

All four Wagners, including Billy’s wife Angela, were arrested in 2018 and faced the death penalty. Although all Wagners originally pleaded not guilty, Jake and Angela switched their pleas in 2021 to avoid the death penalty.

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George IV was convicted on 22 charges, including eight aggravated murder charges, multiple aggravated burglary charges, conspiracy and other felonies, but the judge dropped the death penalty consideration against him. In December 2022, he received eight life sentences in prison without the possibility of parole.

Billy’s trial has faced multiple delays. The Ohio Supreme Court needed to appoint a new judge in the case after the presiding judge’s February 2023 retirement — since the judge replacing him on the bench prosecuted several Wagners. This past November, the judge denied Billy’s request to move the trial out of Pike County.

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