WAVERLY, Ohio — It was a long day for the jury in the Goerge Wagner IV trial, who caps off their fourth week of trial in Pike County.
The three-day weekend is welcomed by all, including the judge, jury, counsel, and yes, even the media.
Friday, the jury saw two witnesses take the stand; two people from BCI who had previously testified, except Friday was focused on moving trailers the Wagner family had used for storage in a heightened time they were prime suspects. The trailers were packed with the family’s belongings after the troop packed their things, sold their home, and moved to Alaska once they became persons of interest in the 2016 homicides of the Rhoden family; eight members of one family were slain while they slept.
On Friday, the jury saw ski masks, a bug detector, and a brass catcher that is used to collect fired shell casings. The items were among the dozens of things BCI agents found in the parked trailers in Adams County two days after the family left the state.
On Friday, BCI Special Agent Todd Fortner returned to the stand and went over shell casings that were found on the Wagner’s vacated land. He then moved on to the trailers, which housed key pieces of evidence, including ski masks, forged custody documents, a lock pick set, and perhaps the most bombshell item that sealed the indictments: a receipt for Walmart shoes bought just days before the murders, which matched bloody shoe impressions founds at the homicide scenes. As the Guardian previously reported, agents found the receipt and then went to Walmart where they seized security video of Angela Wagner buying the shoes a couple of weeks before the murders. Wagner would go on to deny she bought the shoes before fessing up in an interrogation. Her other son, Jake Wagner said the shoes were burned after the killings.
On cross-examination, the defense argued that Jake Wagner told agents the family burned all of the murder clothing and that the ski masks could not have been part of the homicides.
George Wagner turned 31 years old on Thursday, but no mention of his birthday was said in the courtroom and his family has yet to show up to support him.
There is no court Monday due to a recognized holiday. The jury will resume on Tuesday.
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