WAVERLY, Ohio — The twenty-first day of trial for George Wagner IV in Pike County was spent on phone records, text messages, and interrogations of the suspects: Jake, Angela, Billy, and George Wagner in the months leading up to their arrests in 2018; family of four all face charges in the 2016 killings of the Rhoden family.
On Wednesday, during the fourth week of the state presenting their case, the jurors heard text messages between Billy and Angela Wanger — the parents — and between Angela and Jake Wagner; their son. Most of the messages were between the parents and were garbled and chalked full of misspellings and hard to read. For the most part, the messages were about the tumultuous relationship between Billy and Angela, who were married, but estranged after the murders. In the messages Billy stressed his mental health was not well and that he wished he could die; no reason was given, though, his wife dug for a root cause. At one point, Billy said he wanted his wife to shoot him in the head. The two also discussed several times about running away together, leaving their grown children behind, but taking the grandchildren: Sophia and Bulvine. Sophia — nicknamed “Sudds” — is the common child Jake and victim Hannah Rhoden shared; the child that spawned a custody dispute, which the state alleges was the motive for the eight murders. Bulvine — also known as “Vine” — is the son of the defendant, George Wagner. The messages between the grandparents were often sometimes odd, where Angela would say that Bulvine would sleep in bed with her and call her “mommy.” Prosecutors have said that Angela was the boss of the family and wanted to take the grandkids and raise them as her own.
Scheiderer said that when the agents landed in North Dakota they got the necessary warrants needed to plant listening devices into the Wagner’s vehicle to spy on them, as well as tap their cell phones, but the state ran into a problem when they landed in the state: the Wagners ended up taking a different route home through Canada and instead of entering the lower 48 through North Dakota, the family was going to enter through Montana. Scheiderer said the agents scrambled when learning of the route change, labeling it a logistical nightmare. The new route required new warrants, new logistics, and new agents. Scheiderer said the group asked the United States Air Force through the branch of the National Guard to fly them from North Dakota to Montana at the last minute. Once on the ground in Montana, the Wagner family was stopped and interrogated for several hours. Scheiderer said the family lied multiple times during their interviews.
On Wednesday, the defense asked to play the recording of Jake Wagner’s interrogation from Montana, which was estimated to be six hours long. Instead of playing the audio, the judge dismissed the jury and said the court would review the rules of evidence and decide if the recording could be played on Thursday.
The jury dismissed at 3 p.m. and will return on Thursday.