WATCH LIVE: Pike County Massacre

The story needs to be updated at sentencing.

Jake Wagner:

Angela Wagner: Judge Jonathan Hein sentenced her to 30 years in prison. According to our media partners at the Cincinnati Enquirer, upon release, Angela will have to serve two to five years of probation and must register as a violent offender for 10 years

Rita Newcomb: Judge Hein sentenced her to five years probation and a suspended sentence of 90 days, seven of which she has already served. Newcomb asked the judge if she needed to go to prison. Judge Hein said no, unless she “acts.”

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WAVERLY, Ohio (WXIX) – Three members of the same family who took plea deals years ago in the 2016 Pike County massacre case will finally be sentenced today.

These include Edward “Jake” Wagner, 32, and his mother Angela Wagner, 54.

The visiting judge overseeing the cases, retired Darke County Common Pleas Court Judge Jonathan Hein, filed court papers and postponed sentencing hearings until 10 a.m. Friday

According to court records, Angela Wagner’s mother, Rita Newcomb, will also be sentenced at this time.

As part of their plea agreements, Jake and Angela Wagner both testified for the state against the eldest Wagner son, George Wagner IV, at his murder trial in 2022.

Once convicted, however, it is not clear whether they will return to the witness stand to testify again for the state, this time against Jake’s father and Angela’s husband, George “Billy” Wagner III, 53.

A hearing for Billy Wagner is scheduled after Friday’s verdict. This hearing could reveal whether Judge Hein will move his trial to another county after he said he did not believe an impartial jury could be seated in Pike County.

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The victims of the April 2016 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 fiancée Hannah “Hazel” Gilley, 20 .

Two infants and a toddler were spared by the killers and left at the scene: a five-day-old girl, a six-month-old boy and a three-year-old boy.

Prosecutors said the motive for the killings was custody and control over the young daughter of Jake Wagner and one of the victims he confessed to shooting twice in the head, Hanna May Rhoden, 19.

The young couple began dating when she was 13 and he was 18. At 15 she became pregnant with their daughter.

They separated in 2015 after their daughter was born in 2013.

Jake Wagner testified during his brother’s trial that he didn’t want the relationship to end.

Hanna Rhoden had a second child, a little girl, with another man and was with another man at the time of her murder.

Their baby was just five days old when the victims were found on the morning of April 22, 2016.

Jake Wagner testified during his brother’s trial that he shot most of the victims, including Hanna Rhoden, as she lay in bed nursing her newborn.

He said on the witness stand that he positioned her body after shooting her so that she could continue breastfeeding her newborn, whose life he had spared.

He also testified that he picked up the bullet casings and cell phones and took them with him.

However, according to other statements, he was missing a bullet casing that investigators found under the baby’s crib.

George Wagner IV, 33, was convicted on all charges, including eight counts of murder, even though the state and defense agreed that he never shot anyone and Jake Wagner also testified that he did.

Georg Wagner IV is currently appealing his conviction and requesting that his sentence be overturned: eight life sentences and 121 years for 16 other charges.

Jake Wagner, meanwhile, is being held in the Gallia County Jail, state and county records show.

Billy Wagner’s trial was scheduled to begin Jan. 6, but a change of venue and a flood of court filings have delayed it.

He pleaded not guilty to all 22 charges, including eight counts of aggravated murder in connection with the April 2016 killing of his son’s ex-girlfriend and seven of her family members.

Two important decisions are still pending before the appeal court:

• Whether Judge Hein can rule out the possibility that Billy Wagner will face the death penalty against the will of the state and without the state having requested this in an official application
• Whether he can move the trial out of Pike County against the wishes of a victim identified only as “TR” in court records?

“The judge sort of single-handedly abolished the death penalty,” said Mark Krumbein, legal counsel for FOX19 NOW. “So there are so many things that are up in the air right now. Something like this case is truly unique. It’s in my career. In all the murders I’ve covered, I’ve never seen anything like this before.”

If the appeals court upholds the new venue decision, the judge will still have to announce the new location.

Jake Wagner pleaded guilty in April 2021 to eight counts of aggravated murder and 15 other counts, including conspiracy, four counts of aggravated burglary and multiple counts of tampering with evidence.

In total, Jake pleaded guilty to 23 counts.

As part of the plea deal, he agreed to a sentence of eight life sentences without parole, as well as to cooperate with prosecutors and testify against his family members.

“We are completely satisfied,” Wagner’s defense said during the hearing on April 22, 2021. “He knows that without legal help he will die in prison.”

Jake Wagner then testified for the state against his own brother the following year.

According to his confession and testimony, Jake Wagner shot five of the victims, including the mother of his child, Hanna May Rhoden, 19, and shot and wounded a sixth, her father, Chris Rhoden Sr..

Special prosecutor Angie Canepa said Jake confessed to the crimes and apologized for them. In an interview, he led investigators to the weapons and vehicles used in the murders.