AP – Jurors convicted a man yesterday in the killings of eight people from another Ohio family after weighing his denials and other testimony against the word of witnesses including his brother and mother, who previously pleaded guilty for their roles.
George Wagner IV, 31, was found guilty of all 22 counts he faced in southern Ohio’s Pike County, including eight counts of aggravated murder in the 2016 shootings of seven adults and a teenager from the Rhoden family. Wagner sat motionless as the verdicts were read, closing his eyes or looking down.
Members of the Rhoden family, who filled the courtroom in Waverly, about 129 kilometres east of Cincinnati, hugged each other and wiped away tears moments after Wagner was led away in handcuffs.
Tony Rhoden, whose brother, Christopher Rhoden Sr, was among the victims, said he felt sorry for Wagner “because he is human”.
“George Wagner is human. They just didn’t show it on that night,” Rhoden said outside the courthouse. “It should have never happened.”
Prosecutors said the slayings, which initially spurred speculation about drug cartel involvement, stemmed from a dispute over custody of Wagner’s niece. The fatal shootings at three mobile homes and a camper near Piketon in April 2016 terrified residents and launched one of the state’s most extensive criminal investigations.
Wagner denied any knowledge of his family’s involvement in the killings and testified that he wouldn’t have let it happen if he had known of the plans. Prosecutors argued that he did know, participated in the plans and should therefore be convicted in the killings.
Though he wasn’t accused of shooting anyone, they alleged that Wagner was with his brother and father when they went to the homes, that he went inside with them and that he helped his brother move two bodies.
