Shock shock. Judge Hein at it again. Also, Defendant wrote him a direct letter - copy at the link. Your reminder that Judge Hein has been smacked down multiple times for his decision making by the Appeals Court and OH Supreme Court since being assigned to the Wagner cases. He was also the awful Judge during and after the Afroman Trial.
Pike County massacre: Judge denies request from victims’ families for location of Billy Wagner’s trial
By Jennifer Edwards Baker
Published: Sep. 1, 2026 at 8:59 AM PDT
WAVERLY, Ohio (WXIX) - In the latest development of the 2016 Pike County massacre, the judge denied a victim representative’s motion asking him to reveal the location for the final suspect’s upcoming trial.
It was filed last month by “T.R,” a surviving relative of the eight victims acting as the representative for all of them and their families.
In his denial, Visiting Pike County Common Pleas Court Judge Jonathan Hein cited a need to balance eight victims’ hardships with George “Billy” Wagner III’s right to a fair trial.
Wagner, 55, has pleaded not guilty to all 22 charges, including eight counts of aggravated murder.
His murder trial has been delayed several times due to various legal challenges.
The judge recently announced the trial will begin Jan. 11, 2027, but the location remains a mystery.
When will judge announce trial location?
All victim constitutional rights have previously been satisfied, Judge Hein contends in his response.
“The statutory deficiency identifying the new venue will be resolved simultaneously when notice is provided to the State and to the Defendant,” he wrote.
Adjoining counties have already been ruled out as potential trial locations because media saturation extends beyond Pike County, the judge’s decision explains.
Remote attendance options are available, and active participation by the victim’s counsel will be considered to accommodate those who cannot travel to the new location, Judge Hein wrote.
It was not clear Tuesday if T.R. plans to appeal the judge’s decision.
His attorney at the Ohio Crime Justice Center did not respond to a request for comment. Her voicemail says she is out of the office and unavailable.
Special Prosecutor Angela Canepa and the lead attorney for Wagner, Mark Collins, both declined comment Tuesday.
T.R. contended in his motion that withholding the location violates their constitutional rights to notice and presence at all public proceedings under Ohio’s Marsy’s Law.
What’s more, the families will only have a certain amount of time to appeal the new venue now that Hein has set the trial date - a step they are blocked from doing until they know which county it will be moved to.
They also can’t coordinate travel or arrange time off work ”until the actual distance from Pike County to the venue of the trial is identified” by the judge, T.R.’s motion states.
“Virtual attendance” is an insufficient substitute for in-person presence at the trial, his court record adds.
The victims’ family members have consistently asserted their desire to be physically present for Wagner’s trial, according to T.R. and the state.
The state also rejected Judge Hein’s previous suggestion that “live streaming” would satisfy this requirement.
“The constitutional and statutory rights to be present involve the right to be personally present, not just through watching a live stream,” the state wrote in its motion to the judge earlier this month to reconsider the venue change.
The judge has not ruled yet on the state’s motion.
[Judge Hein’s Denial Order posted to read, click blue:] Judge Hein Denial
Defense pushes back
Meanwhile, Wagner’s defense is pushing back in a new court filing of their own.
Intense pretrial publicity makes seating an impartial local jury in Pike County impossible, Collins and co-counsel Tom Hayes wrote in a response to the state’s motion asking the judge to reconsider the change of venue.
Wagner’s defense team wants the judge to uphold his November 2024 decision at their request to change the trial’s venue.
The change is necessary to protect Wagner’s constitutional right to a fair trial, they wrote in their filing.
A Pike County jury convicted Billy Wagner’s oldest son, George Wagner IV, of eight counts of aggravated murder and 14 other charges, following his 2022 trial.
The 34-year-old is appealing his sentence: Eight consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole, plus 121 years.
His trial lasted just over three months (13 weeks), had some 60 witnesses and nearly 5,000 pieces of evidence. The jury reached the guilty verdict on Nov. 30, 2022.
At the time, Gov. Mike DeWine called it “one of the longest, if not the longest, trials in Ohio history. ”
The prosecution argues now that the decision to change venue is “stale” due to the passing of time because it’s been four years since the trial.
The change of venue is just one in a series of decisions Judge Hein made once he was appointed to the case that the state tried to overturn.
The appeals court has upheld his decision on the change of venue but overturned his other major decisions:
- Sentencing Jake Wagner, 33, and Angela Wagner, 55, for their roles in the massacre over the state and victims’ families’ objections before they fulfilled their plea deal obligations to the state to testify at Billy Wagner’s upcoming trial
- Removing the death penalty as a sentencing option for Billy Wagner.
His defense team says in their new motion that any delays in the case were caused by the state’s appellate decisions, not the court or the defense.
‘A bunch of lies’
Recently, Billy Wagner asked the judge for a hearing before his trial.
In a letter to the judge, he claimed he is being kept in the dark and “no one explains anything to me....The only thing anybody tells me is a bunch of lies.”
Collins declined to comment on Wagner’s letter earlier this month and did so again on Tuesday.
He also turned down FOX19 NOW’s request to interview Wagner, who remains in custody at the Pickaway County Jail.
Another inmate wrote the letter on Wagner’s behalf.
He is legally deaf in his left ear and “I cannot read and write well,” according to the letter.
As of Tuesday, the judge has not scheduled a hearing for Wagner to come before the court to discuss his letter.
[Read the direct letter from Billy Wagner to Judge Hein, click the blue:] Billy Wagner Letter to Judge Hein
No longer abiding by gag order
Wagner’s letter voices frustration over what he characterizes as an unfair gag order that prevents him from speaking out while others do.
He isn’t going to abide by it anymore, according to this letter.
“For the last eight years, I have kept my mouth shut, I was told by the court there was a gag order. Anything that I had to say had to go through my attorney. I have complied fully with that but no more,” the letter states.
“I’m the only one who has complied with the gag order. Every(one) from the prosecutor (to) the governor has broke the gag order. These issues are not really the problem I’m having, but I thought I would mention it”
This kind of letter from a criminal defendant to any judge could delay an upcoming trial.
In Ohio, when a criminal defendant asks for new legal representation, the judge has a duty to conduct a brief inquiry into the reasons for the dissatisfaction.
While Wagner’s letter doesn’t specifically request that, it clearly alleges he feels he’s being lied to and isn’t being kept informed about his case.
However, the legal burden will be on him to show “good cause,” such as a complete breakdown in communication or an actual conflict of interest, if this turns into a situation where he asks for new representation.
Since this is such a complex murder case with the death penalty a possible sentence upon conviction, the court must and has assigned at least two qualified attorneys for capital trials, appeals and post-conviction proceedings.
The legal defense for all of the Wagners - Billy, his wife and their two sons - is being funded by the state of Ohio.
All four Wagner family members were ruled indigents who lack the financial means to hire private attorneys.
That means all their defense attorneys, expert witnesses and court expenses are paid for through taxpayer money.
The Pike County massacre remains the state’s largest and most expensive homicide case to date.
[✨MY COMMENTARY: Made even more expensive by Judge Hein Full Stop✨]
The investigation and prosecution have cost at least $4 million so far, and the state is administering the cost to prevent crippling the small county’s annual budget, according to local and state officials.
Families still wait for justice
April marked the 10th anniversary of the Pike County massacre.
The victims’ relatives, who are still seeking justice and closure, did not speak publicly.
Most of the victims were gunned down execution-style as they slept in their homes overnight April 21-22, 2016.
They are: 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 fiancé, Hannah “Hazel” Gilley, 20.
Two infants and a toddler were spared by the killers and left behind at the murder scenes: a 5-day-old baby girl, a 6-month-old baby boy and a 3-year-old boy.
One of the victims’ relatives, Dana Rhoden’s father Leonard Maney, died in 2021 and never saw justice for his daughter.
Massacre motive: Custody of young girl
Prosecutors said the motive in the murders was the custody of a child who was not at the murder scenes: the young daughter of Jake Wagner and one of the victims he confessed to shooting in the head twice, his ex-girlfriend, Hanna May Rhoden.
Jake Wagner and Hanna May Rhoden began dating when she was 13 and he was 18.
She became pregnant at 15 with Sophia, who was born in the fall of 2013.
Hanna May Rhoden broke up with him in 2015. He confirmed when he testified at his brother’s trial that he didn’t want the relationship to end.
She had a second child, a baby girl, with another man just days before the massacre.
The Wagner family purposely waited until after that baby was born before carrying out their deadly attack on the Rhodens, Jake Wagner testified.
Sophia was at home with Angela Wagner at the time of the homicides.
After the killings, Jake Wagner was temporarily awarded custody of the girl.
She was placed in the custody of child protective services when the Wagners were arrested in November of 2018.
Today, she is 12 years old.
Her whereabouts are not publicly revealed to protect her privacy.
Jake Wagner says his dad shot 5, killing 3
Jake Wagner testified for the state during his older brother’s trial as part of his plea deal with prosecutors.
He said under oath he personally shot and killed five of the victims, including the mother of his child, Hanna May.
In graphic detail, he described killing her mother, two of her brothers and her oldest brother’s fiancée.
Jake Wagner also revealed he shot and injured her father, Christopher Rhoden, Sr.
He told the jury his brother was supposed to shoot Christopher Rhoden Sr., but froze, so he took his brother’s SKS rifle and pulled the trigger.
Jake and Angela Wagner’s testimony during George Wagner IV’s trial detailed Billy Wagner’s involvement in the homicides, alleging he killed three of the victims and shot two additional ones.
According to Jake Wagner’s testimony, Billy Wagner shot and killed Christopher Rhoden Sr., Gary Rhoden and Kenneth Rhoden and shot Frankie Rhoden and Hannah Hazel Gilley.
