WAVERLY, Ohio (WXIX) – One of the Wagner family members convicted of killing eight people in southern Ohio in 2016 wants a new trial.
Pike County Common Pleas Court allowed state prosecutors to make several errors during George Wagner IV’s three-month trial so all of his charges – including eight counts of aggravated murder, should be thrown out, his attorney alleges in a brief filed Monday.
“There is a reasonable probability that jurors were swayed by these errors, which demands reversal and a new trial,” his attorney, Louis Grube of Cleveland, wrote.
Wagner IV is currently serving eight life sentences and 121 years on 16 other charges.
The life sentences are running consecutively.
The death penalty was taken off the table after his brother and mother testified against him for the state.
Wagner IV filed a notice of appeal in early 2023 but this is the first time we are seeing specific allegations of why he feels he is entitled to a new trial.
“It is impossible to say beyond a reasonable doubt that jurors did not lose their way and convict George because they thought he was just like his criminal family members, he had probably committed the charged crimes because he had acted wrongfully and criminally in the past, he was lying consistent with his character and advice from his lawyers, and an acquittal would dishonor the victims and disappoint their family members, who had already suffered so much,” the brief states.
Highlights of allegations:
- Jurors who were more likely to sign a death penalty verdict and were “statistically more likely to enter a conviction” were selected and then the death penalty option was removed.
- “Of the jurors who did serve, two of them had direct personal connections to the victims that Jake Wagner and his father, Billy Wagner, shot to death in their sleep.”
- “For weeks at the start of the trial, the State saturated the minds of the jurors with the images of faces they had seen before in their daily lives, now gruesomely dead, and the reactions of family members who lost loved ones. When the State finally got around to admitting evidence related to George, it was largely meant to connect him to his family members through prior crimes and wrongs under the guise of establishing an ongoing scheme to commit crimes together or to show that he and his family owned a significant arsenal of firearms. Jurors were even given some evidence of firearms the State admitted had nothing to do with the case at hand, which had either been withdrawn from evidence or excluded by the trial court.”
- During closing arguments, “the State accused defense counsel of knowing that George was lying and coaching his testimony.”
Grube declined to comment Wednesday.
We also reached out to state prosecutors for the appeal. We will update this story once we hear back.
So far, they have not responded to Grube’s brief with a court filing of their own.
Pike County massacre: Complete trial coverage
The jury found Wagner IV guilty on Nov. 30, 2022, on all 22 charges, including eight counts of aggravated murder. They deliberated for less than a day.
The murders of eight members of the Rhoden and Gilley families are considered the state’s largest and most expensive homicide case to date.
Gov. DeWine has called the trial “one of the longest, if not the longest, trials in Ohio history.”
Estimates from state and local officials have placed the costs at nearly $4 million, all funded by the state of Ohio.
Those taxpayer-funded expenses are only going to grow as Wagner IV now appeals and his father, George “Billy” Wagner III, heads for trial next year.
Wagner IV’s lawyer for the appeal was paid $125 per hour for work before March 1 and will collect $140 per hour on or after that date “with no fee cap,” according to the most recent court order about pay for attorneys in the case.
