George Billy Wagner III faces eight counts of aggravated murder and 14 other charges associated with tampering with evidence, conspiracy and forgery. The charges are from the execution-style slayings of seven members of the Rhoden family and one future member in Pike County, southern Ohio on April 22, 2016. The victims of the massacre were Christopher Rhoden Sr., 40; his older brother, Kenneth Rhoden, 44; his cousin, Gary Rhoden, 38; Chris Rhoden Sr.'s former wife, Dana Lynn Rhoden, 37, and their children: Clarence 'Frankie' Rhoden, 20, Hanna May Rhoden, 19, Christopher Rhoden Jr., 16, and Frankie’s fiance, Hannah 'Hazel' Gilley, 20. The killers spared the lives of a 5-day-old baby girl, a 6-month-old baby boy, and a 3-year-old boy. Prosecutors have claimed that the motive in the murders was the custody of the young daughter of Jake Wagner and one of the victims he confessed to shooting in the head twice, the mother of his daughter Hanna May Rhoden. Hanna had a second child by another man, a baby girl who was just five days old. Jake Wagner testified that he shot Hanna as she was propped up in bed breastfeeding her new infant. He testified that he positioned her body after he shot her so she could keep breastfeeding her newborn, whose life he spared. |