WAVERLY, Ohio — The thirteenth day of trial for George Wagner IV in Pike County saw reasonable doubt introduced for the first time in the trial that has spanned three weeks, with several more weeks to follow. Also today, jurors saw security video from around the area showing — what the state says — are the Wagners driving to commit the crimes.
Cameras were not allowed in the courtroom for the first portion of the day when a shoe expert, Suzanne Elliott resumed the stand after the jury was sent home early yesterday. Judge Randy Deering clarified before the start of court today that the reason for the early dismissal of court on Tuesday was because a juror had a personal matter at home, and instead of releasing the juror from the panel entirely, he decided to send the entire court home for the day at around lunch.
Elliott finished her testimony Wednesday morning by saying that shoeprints were found at two of the four crime scenes, which prosecutors have dubbed the “murder shoes.” As the state has previously said, Angela Wagner was caught on Walmart video buying two pairs of shoes that matched bloody prints at the crime scenes. Angela later admitted in an interrogation that she bought the shoes for her sons, but that they did not like them so they discarded them. The brothers, however, denied ever seeing the shoes, the state said. Later, in a search warrant on Wagner property and before their indictments, agents found a Walmart receipt for shoes Angela bought, but did not find the shoes, themselves. The state said Jake Wagner will testify later in the trial that the shoes were burned after the killings.
The expert told the defense on cross-examination that she could not say who wore any of the shoes, but only said she knew that the sizes found were 10.5 and 11; the state has yet to say what size shoes the Wagner family wore. The expert also testified in a bombshell that Leonard Manley — Dana Rhoden’s father — wore the identical shoe as the murders, but that it was a size 10, which did not match the bloody shoe prints at the scenes. Manley’s shoes were seized in a search warrant 25 days after the murders and tested negative for blood on them, according to the expert, and the fact that he had the same shoe was merely coincidental. It did, however, possible plant reasonable doubt for the defense that perhaps Manley was the killer or that he made the bloody impressions when the bodies were found while he and other family members awaited law enforcement. Manley died last year before the trial could get started.
“Could you prove that Billy Wagner was wearing the shoes?” defense attorney Richard Nash asked. The expert said, “I cannot say that.”
On redirect, the state asked, “Can you testify that George Wagner was wearing the shoes?” and the woman said “no.” In the end, the expert was unable to testify if any of the Wagners wore the shoes.
Shortly before lunch, a BCI phone records expert named Julia Eveslage took the stand and broke down the phone records of the victims. It was revealed that victim Hannah May Rhoden was in contact with Jake Wagner the night she was killed, through text messages. The messages, themselves, were not read in court, but the phone records show the two texted at around 9 p.m. the night of the homicides. Of course, this is not uncommon since the two shared a child and Sophia was with the Wagner family that night.
Dana Rhoden last had phone activity around 3:30 a.m. the day the bodies were found; Frankie Rhoden’s last phone activity was around 10:30 p.m. the night of the deaths, and Hannah Hazel Gilley’s last phone activity was at 1 a.m. the morning the bodies were found.
Kenneth Rhoden last used his phone the night he was killed at 9:41 p.m., the expert said.
Gary Rhoden did not own a cell phone, the expert said, and Chris Rhoden Sr. had two phones. With Chris’ phone, his last activity was phone calls to Billy Wagner. As other witnesses has testified, Chris and Billy were in the drug business together. In opening statements, the state said that Billy went to kill Chris but before doing so, he asked Chris to call Billy’s phone, which Billy left behind at Angela’s in an attempt to cause reasonable doubt that Billy was not a suspect — by having the calls ping off cell towers. Angela reportedly answered the phone and it caused a phone record to make it look like Billy was home during the killings. But that’s when Chris was killed, the state said.
None of the phones for the victims, themselves, were recovered, except that of Frankie Rhoden. Eveslage said she could not get any of the text of the messages from the phone records of the other victims; only that the messages were transmitted because AT&T does not keep that type of data.
Later in the afternoon, the state called their lead BCI agent, Ryan Scheiderer to the stand. He has been on the case since day one when the homicides were called into the 9-1-1 dispatch, and remains on the case today, he said.
Scheiderer talked about how he was alerted to the crimes happening while he was at home gardening the day the bodies were found. The state quickly jumped into the initial phases of the investigation, which included security camera footage that neighbors in the area of Kenneth Rhoden’s camper and Union Hill Road handed over to investigators. On the video, vehicles could be seen driving up and down the roads around the time the state says the murders happened.
- 1:36 A.M.: Vehicle leaves the area of crime scenes on Union Hill Road and turns onto S.R. 772.
- 2 A.M.: A vehicle is seen driving off S.R. 772 down Union Hill Road toward the crime scenes.
- 2:29 A.M.: A vehicle is seen driving down Left Fork Road, toward Kenneth Rhoden’s camper.
- 2:41 A.M.: Two vehicles are seen leaving the area of the crime scenes and making a left turn onto S.R. 772
- 2:51 A.M.: A vehicle is seen driving down Left Fork Road toward Kenneth Rhoden’s camper.
- 3:10 A.M. A vehicle is seen driving away from Kenneth Rhoden’s camper on Left Fork Road.
- 3:19 A.M.: Two vehicles drive down S.R. 772 and turn onto Union Hill Road toward the crime scenes.
The issue with the videos are, it’s dark and there is no way to tell who is driving or the make and model of the vehicles. In fact, the agent testified, “it’s unknown if the [vehicles seen driving toward and away from the crime scenes] are the same vehicles.”
The jury was dismissed at around 4:10 p.m. and sent home until Thursday morning.