WAVERLY, Ohio (Court TV) — A man accused of killing eight members of a family is complaining that he doesn’t understand what’s going on as he awaits trial.
George “Billy” Wagner III appears in court. (Paul Weeden/WCPO)
George “Billy” Wagner III has pleaded not guilty to charges including aggravated murder, conspiracy, aggravated burglary and tampering with evidence in the victims’ deaths.
Billy Wagner’s son, George Wagner IV, was convicted of 22 counts, including murder, and sentenced to eight life terms and 121 years in prison. Billy Wagner’s wife, Angela Wagner, and his other son, Jake Wagner, pleaded guilty in 2021 and testified against George Wagner IV at his 2022 trial.
Jake Wagner had been involved in a custody dispute with his ex-girlfriend, Hanna Rhoden, when Rhoden, her mother, and her younger brother were killed in their home on April 22, 2016. Rhoden’s father and his cousin were killed at another home; her older brother and his fiancee were killed in their home; and Rhoden’s uncle was killed in his camper. Investigators said all the victims were killed “execution-style.” An infant Rhoden had been holding when she was killed and her older brother’s child were found alive at the scenes of the killings.
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Billy Wagner has been behind bars for the past 10 years; he wrote a letter to the judge, dated Aug. 7, to call attention to “issues” he says he’s having ahead of trial. The letter, which starts by stating, “I, George Wagner, request a hearing on a matter of great importance,” alleges that he’s the only person who has been abiding by an alleged gag order in the case. “These issues are not really the problem I’m having, but I thought I would mention it,” the letter states. The letter notes that the defendant “cannot read and write well,” and that a fellow inmate is writing it on his behalf.
“The problem I’m having is no one explains anything to me,” Billy Wagner complains in the letter. “I can’t hear. I’m legally deaf in my left ear. The only thing anybody tells me is a bunch of lies.”
Members of the victims’ families have also grown frustrated with the process and submitted their own filing asking Judge Jonathan Hein where the trial will be held.
On Nov. 25, 2024, Hein ordered that the trial be moved out of Pike County, citing the overwhelming media attention the case had received and noting that the trial for the defendant’s son had just ended. But Hein’s order failed to specify where the trial would be moved. In a motion filed on Monday, a representative of the victim identified only as T.R. said that on a July 28, 2026, phone conference, Hein scheduled the trial to start on Jan. 11, 2027, but would not disclose the venue.
“Victim T.R. and other surviving family members have jobs, homes and families that they will need to make arrangements for when planning for this lengthy trial. In doing so, they must know how far they will be required to travel to attend the trial in-person,” the motion states. “For these reasons, Victim T.R. and other surviving family members must be afforded meaningful notice including the date, time and place of the trial proceedings.”
Prosecutors filed their own motion echoing T.R.’s message and reiterating that they don’t know where the trial is scheduled to be held. In their motion, prosecutors suggested that the order to change venue should be vacated entirely. “Whatever the conditions and circumstances as to publicity that prompted the 11-25-24 Entry, the fact remains that those conditions and circumstances have necessarily materially changed in the direction toward denying a change of venue now,” prosecutors said, further saying the order was “out-of-date and stale in terms of truly justifying the moving of a trial that is now occurring over four years after the end of the co-defendant’s 2022 trial.”
