WAVERLY, Ohio — The twelfth day of trial in George W. Wagner IV in Pike County ended early as jurors were sent home at lunch. The reason for the early dismissal was not publicly disclosed and court officials refused to answer any questions.
It all started when the court’s bailiff stepped into the courtroom at around 11:45 a.m. and slipped a post-it note to Judge Randy Deering. Deering read the note, made a facial expression, jotted down some things on paper, and reached for his cell phone and was typing on it. Simultaneously, the bailiff was handed two pieces of paper with highlights on them from the court administrator, Sandra Lawhorn. It is unknown what was on the post-it note, the pieces of paper, or if they had anything to do with the trial or the early dismissal.
The state was in the middle of a direct examination of a BCI shoe expert named Suzanne Elliott. Elliot’s testimony is key to the state’s case against Wagner after bloody shoeprints were found at the crime scenes, which the state says matched shoes bought and worn by the Wagner family. Deering summonsed the lawyers to a sidebar and told the jury that they “might be going home early.” Prosecutor Rob Junk told the media that he was not allowed to talk about the reasoning for the early dismissal but assured the media that “everyone is safe.”
The morning kicked off with a continuance from Monday: BCI firearms expert Matthew White finished his testimony about the bullets found inside the victims, as well as the shell casings found at some of the scenes and the Wagner homes.
As we know, George, his mother Angela, father Billy, and brother Jake are all facing charges for the eight killings of the Rhoden family in 2016; the state says it stemmed from a custody dispute over a young girl named Sophia.
One of the key pieces of evidence that the state says led to a break in the two-year investigation that eventually led to the arrest of the Wagner family was spent shell casings. While the killer or killers collected most of their shell casings at the homicide scenes, there were some that were left behind, evidently unbeknownst since the majority were scooped up. During the investigation phases in 2016 through 2018, investigators honed in on the Wagner family as suspects. As part of the inquiry, several search warrants were executed on Wagner property, including their driveway at 260 Peterson Road, Peebles. In the driveway, agents said they found spent shell casings from apparent target practice that matched the markings of some of the shell casings found at the homicides.
Elliott testified about the shoe impressions found in blood at the crime scenes and how she found the matching shoe after looking for them at Walmart. She had visited Payless and Footlocker after scanning a statewide and FBI database of more than 50,000 impressions with no luck. Angela Wagner admitted to buying the now-dubbed “murder shoes” but said she threw them away because her sons did not like them. A receipt for the shoes was later found in a search warrant on Wagner property. The shoes, themselves, were never recovered, but the state says Jake Wagner admitted to burning them after the killings. It has not been stated which Wagner was wearing the shoes.
White said that one of the guns used to kill Chis Rhoden Sr. was the same gun used to kill Kenneth and Gary Rhoden, which, as we know, were two different scenes: on Union Hill Road and another on Left Fork Road.
The jury was sent home for the day at 12:30 p.m. and will return Wednesday at 9 a.m. Officials refuse to answer questions about the early dismissal.