Surviving family members of the victims started clapping after Wagner was sentenced to "life in prison without parole."
Trigger warning: This article contains graphic descriptions of violence that some readers may find distressing
George Wagner IV has been sentenced to jail over the murder of 8 family members in Pike County, Ohio. Justice has finally served as George received 8 consecutive life sentences without parole and an extra 121 years in prison for carrying out execution-style murders. Wagner was convicted last month of 22 charges regarding his involvement in murdering the Rhoden and Gilley family members and now he is bound to spend the rest of his life behind the bars. According to Local 12, the surviving family members of the victims started clapping when Wagner was sentenced to "life in prison without parole". However, the convict displayed no emotion.
Wagner remained visibly impassive when the victim impact statements were produced in the court as the mother of Frankie’s first child read out a letter from their 9-year-old son who questioned "Why did you kill my daddy?" The massacre was carried out by George Wagner IV in April 2016 when he took the lives of eight family members over a custody battle between Wagner IV's brother, Edward "Jake" Wagner, and 19-year-old Hanna Rhoden over their then 2-year-old daughter.
According to PEOPLE, George killed Hanna, her parents, Christopher Rhoden Sr.,40, and Dana Rhoden,37. He didn’t even spare her 20-year-old brother Clarence "Frankie" Rhoden and 16-year-old Christopher Jr., Frankie’s 20-year-old fiancée, Hannah Gilley, 44-year-old Kenneth Rhoden, and a 38-year-old Gary Rhoden. George’s parents, George Wagner III and Angela Wagner, and his brother Jake Wagner was also arrested in November 2018 as suspects for having a connection with the mass murder. According to 10 WBNS, the authorities believe that “the Wagner family had plotted the murders together.”
Following the court documents obtained by the outlet, the Wagners reportedly made attempts to get Hanna to sign her parental rights over to Jake Wagner a few weeks before the murders. According to WHSV 3, Jake and Hanna May Rhoden first interacted at a 2010 Pike County Fair and they were just 17 and 13 years old, respectively and Hanna got pregnant when she was 15. Jake pleaded guilty to 23 counts in his association with the murders back in 2021, agreed to testify against his brother and parents, and made a deal with prosecutors to escape the death penalty for himself and his family, reports WLWT-5.
According to the reports of CBS and 10 WBNS, the prosecutors revealed that Jake confessed he was responsible for the death of five of the family members, and George IV's and Jake's mother, Angela, pleaded guilty to helping him plot the murders. Her husband, Billy is still awaiting trial and has not pleaded guilty to the charges yet. As per the reports of Local 12, this has been the longest and costliest criminal trial in the history of Ohio.
References:
https://people.com/crime/ohio-man-sentenced-murdering-family-of-8/
https://www.whsv.com/2022/10/24/jake-wagner-testifies-against-brother-pike-county-massacre-trial/
https://www.wlwt.com/article/ohio-pike-county-rhoden-massacre-breakdown/41521453
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jake-wagner-please-guilty-killing-family-ohio/
Cover Image Source: Law&Crime Network / YouTube
