Though 2 Wagner relatives have taken plea deals in Pike County homicides, the oldest son has not

WAVERLY — After more than two hours of delay Monday, the previously-scheduled hearing for George Wagner IV in Pike County Common Pleas Court lasted only a few minutes because there was no specially-certified court stenographer required to be present to handle certain matters.

This is at least the second hearing where the stenographer issue was a problem because, in death penalty cases, the court reporter must be specially certified if the court is going to tackle any motions of substance.

Wagner's next hearing was scheduled for Oct. 25.

The appearance of Wagner, 29, came just three days after his mother pleaded guilty to her own charges in the case for the April 22, 2016, killing of eight members of the Rhoden family in rural Pike County. Angela Wagner, 50, on Friday pleaded guilty to 14 charges, including complicity to commit aggravated murder, aggravated burglary and engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity.

Second Wagner pleads guilty: Angela Wagner expected to get a 30-year prison sentence

More on Angela Wagner: After arrest, she violated court order restricting family contact

In exchange for her agreement to testify against her own family and for statements she made to authorities that laid out the planning and execution of the long-planned plot to kill the Rhodens, prosecutors dropped the aggravated murder charges she had faced.

Where do the other Wagner cases stand in Pike County?

Her younger son, Edward "Jake" Wagner had pleaded guilty on April 22 — the five year anniversary of the homicides that left eight members of the Rhoden family dead in their homes — to all the charges against him. In his statement to prosecutors, he confessed to personally shooting five of the eight victims. 

The agreed-upon sentence, which Judge Randy Deering will hand down later, is that Jake Wagner will serve eight consecutive life terms without parole, plus more than 100 years for the sentences on all the other charges.

The criminal case against father and husband George "Billy" Wagner III continues, and he is due back in court Thursday. At a hearing in April, his court-appointed attorney said his client was frustrated with the slow speed of the criminal case. 

Read more:Charges dropped against Wagner grandmother 

When Jake Wagner pleaded guilty in April, prosecutors agreed to remove the possibility of the death penalty for his whole family.

The Rhoden case all started with a call to 911 on April 22, 2016

Shot to death in four homes on three properties in Pike County on April 22, 2016, were: Christopher Rhoden Sr.; Dana Manley Rhoden; their daughter, Hanna May Rhoden; their sons, Clarence “Frankie” Rhoden and Christopher Rhoden Jr.; Frankie’s fiancée, Hannah Gilley; Kenneth Rhoden, Chris Sr.’s brother; and Gary Rhoden, a cousin.

Most were shot multiple times at close range while sleeping. Kenneth was shot just once, and evidence at the home showed that Chris Sr. and Gary were awake when attacked.

The case all started when a frantic Bobby Jo Manley — Dana Rhoden's sister — called 911 at 7:49 a.m. to report finding the bodies of Chris Sr. and Gary when she arrived at Chris Sr.'s home on the morning April 22, 2016. With the quick discoveries of the other bodies, the Ohio attorney general's office's Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation swarmed the scenes and took over the investigation into what then-Attorney General Mike DeWine would call the most complex (and maybe now longest-lingering) homicide cases the state of Ohio has ever seen.

Also in Pike County:Sheriff who investigated Rhoden homicides charged in own criminal case

It went unsolved until November 2018 when, in a coordinated effort, authorities arrested the Wagner family for the homicides.

Jake Wagner and Hanna May Rhoden had a child together, and investigators have said custody and control of children was at the root of the crimes.

George Wagner IV was the only one of the four defendants to have already had a trial date scheduled: It is set for April 4, 2022, and the court has said it could last as long as three months.

All four Wagners have been separated and forbidden contact with each other since the day of their arrests. Jake Wagner is being held in the Franklin County Jail; his brother is in the Ross County Jail; his mother is at the Delaware County Jail; and Billy Wagner is being held in the Butler County Jail.

hzachariah@dispatch.com

@hollyzachariah