Pike County murder trial: Jake Wagner, brother of defendant, finishes testimony

Found dead that day were 40-year-old Christopher Rhoden Sr., 37-year-old Dana Rhoden, 20-year-old Hannah “Hazel” Gilley, 16-year-old Christopher Rhoden Jr., 20-year-old Clarence “Frankie” Rhoden, 37-year-old Gary Rhoden, 19-year-old Hanna May Rhoden, and 44-year-old Kenneth Rhoden.

The trial is the first time a person has faced a jury for the deaths of the Rhoden family six years ago.

On Friday, John Parker, one of George’s defense attorneys, continued to cross examine Jake.

During his childhood, Jake was taught — often by his father Billy — to pick locks and steal trucks, or items from the trailers of semi trucks.

Jake was, “not to boast, but very good,” at picking locks, he said. Billy also impressed “survival skills” on him, like how to evade detection, enter houses, shoot a gun, locate security surveillance and " survive on natural substances you’d find in the woods,” he told the jury.

Billy was a doomsday prepper, and Jake said he’d created a shelter out of a buried shipping container for Y2K in 2000; the container was stocked with food, water and other items.

Jake said his father first told him about his own thieving practices when Jake was roughly 12 or 13 years old. He stole things so his children wouldn’t have to, Jake said his father told him; Jake remarked that it was “strange how that works,” because he’d committed the crimes he’d done so his child wouldn’t have to worry.

Parker asked Jake to detail the the kinds of things Billy taught him to steal as a child; Jake said it started with vending machines and moved to stealing trucks and trailers and siphoning fuel from semis. At the age of 15 to 16, Jake said he would help scout while others stole shipments from the backs of semi trucks at truck stops — specifically targeting anything hauling metals like copper. Billy would take any trucks or trailers they stole, along with any metals, down to Mexico where he had a contact who would buy them, Jake said.

At one point, he returned from Mexico with a briefcase filled with $100,000 in cash, Jake said.

Billy also taught his sons “observance,” Jake said, showing them how to sweep corners of rooms that could be hiding people or surveillance cameras. Jake said he was hard wired to act as if someone was listening to him at all times. Parker asked whether Billy believed someone could listen to or see him through his TV and Jake cracked a smile, responding that his father didn’t trust any electronic device and refused to converse around them.

The family would bury cash in the surrounding property of their home on Bethel Hill Road, Jake said.

Parker moved on to Jake’s schooling, pointing out that Jake was homeschooled by his mother, Angela, for most of his life. Jake said the program his mother used was a mail-in company, where he would complete the schoolwork and they would mail it back to the company for assessment.

Jake said he refused to finish studies in social studies, history, English and psychology because he didn’t believe he would need those subjects in life; his mother, instead, completed the coursework for those subjects and submitted it under his name so he would graduate.

Parker asked Jake about his hobbies and his favorite video games, asking him whether he was “influenced” by the shooter games he preferred; he said he supposed they did.

His father didn’t believe in going to the doctor unless it was absolutely necessary, Jake told the jury; he’d been stitched up by Billy in the past and often the Wagner patriarch would whip out a roll of duct tape or black electrical tape to bandage a bleeding wound.

Jake described a time he and George were removing semi tires from a makeshift moto track the family had tried to run, when he was hit in the head with a grappling hook. The brothers were in a four-wheeler, George at the wheel and Jake in the back, tossing the hook to grab and drag the large tires. At one point, Jake said he lassoed a tire and the chain pulled taut; he turned to look back and felt something smack him in the forehead, he said.

The impact “peeled my skin to the skull,” said Jake, adding that it was a big gash. That time, he was taken to the hospital for stitches, he said.

Parker asked Jake whether he was his mother’s favorite son.

“I’ve been accused of being the favorite,” he said.

Parker questioned Jake about a kennel business Angela ran on the farm, breeding dogs and selling puppies; Jake said it was profitable, but the demand was too high, so the family resorted to adopting mutts from local pounds for breeding to keep up.

Jake was also asked about the arsons the family committed for insurance money; Jake said he recalled three arsons specifically — a garage, one house he said they burned because of a mold infestation, and the family home on Bethel Hill Road. The final arson, he said, the family committed because his grandmother, Fredericka, planned to sell the property but not reimburse Jake and his family for the home they built by hand that stood on the land.

Angela was upset about that, so the family planned to burn it down and collect insurance money, Jake said.

The Wagner family left for Alaska in May of 2017, a little over one year after the murders. Jake said he and George had always wanted to go back after a vacation spent in the state in their teens; he said the family’s figured they’d stay up there for five years or so and, if it didn’t work out, would move back down to the “lower 48.”

They shortened the trip, temporarily returning to Ohio just one year later. Jake said they hurried back “to take care of that situation,” referring to the multiple searches done by Ohio Bureau Criminal Investigations agents on their former home on Peterson Road.

It was on the trip down through Canada that the family learned of the search executed on their belongings, stored in trailers parked on a friend’s property before they’d moved, Jake said.

“Oh, we all got upset,” said Jake.

During the years after the murders, both Jake and Angela monitored chatter on social media sites Facebook and Topix, Jake said. Jake admitted he’d made a fake profile on Facebook — initially with the purpose of using it to speak to Hanna to determine whether she was interested in getting back together — and used it to comment on posts in pages about the homicides. He told the jury he couldn’t remember the fake name he used.

Parker asked about Jake’s relationship with the woman he met and married while in Alaska, Elizabeth Armer — then called Elizabeth Freeman. Jake described their courtship again, telling the jury he’d wanted a Christian wife and someone to be a mother to Sophia. Armer didn’t turn out to be the wife he’d hoped she’d be, he said.

“She lied to me on our wedding night,” said Jake.

He said when the pair went to watch a video together on YouTube, her search history populated, showing searches for “how to be a white witch” and other topics related to witchcraft. He said he asked her about it, and she shrugged it off as just suggestions for searches, though Jake said he didn’t believe the suggestion.

“No one wants to marry a witch,” said Jake. “That’s serious stuff.”

Ultimately, he said he let it go, but his wife also confessed to him she was having doubts in her faith; she later revealed to him that, for a short time while living in Texas, she’d been part of a cult, he claimed. Once Beth moved in with the Wagner family on their final return to Ohio, Jake said she wasn’t interested in doing any of the same things they’d done together in Alaska.

Referencing a claim Beth made in her testimony, Parker asked Jake if he’d forced Beth to consummate their marriage on their wedding night; Jake said he didn’t.

Hanna had also not been a perfect partner for him, Jake said when Parker asked whether she’d been the kind of mother he’d wanted for Sophia.

“I love Hanna,” he said. “It wasn’t love at first sight. She grew on me.”

He painted Hanna as the instigator in the conception of Sophia, telling the jury she’d lamented that Tabitha, her friends and many others around her were having babies and she wanted to have a family. Jake said he’d felt that Hanna needed to finish school first and that they both should be older before having children.

“After she left me, it’s like she gave up her parenting standards and kept going down, down, down,” he said.

Hanna began smoking, hanging out with people Jake said he didn’t approve of and seeing other men. Jake said there’d been rumors that she’d cheated on him; he admitted that her relationships with other men made him jealous. But worse, he was worried about the impact those other men could have been having on Sophia, he said.

His daughter began clinging to him, especially when it was time to drop her off with Hanna, he said, and told him Hanna’s new boyfriend, Corey Holdren, had locked her in a bedroom for hours. Parker asked if he became consumed with the concern that Sophia was going to be sexually abused.

“Overcome with fear,” he said. “Consumed is the right word.”

He said from the moment he learned Hanna would give birth to a girl, he was worried she’d be sexually abused — like many of the women in his life had been, including Hanna, George’s ex-wife Tabitha and his mother, Angela.

Parker began pointing out instances in which Jake was not truthful, citing his two interviews with BCI in April and May of 2017, before the family moved to Alaska.

“They were asking for your help in solving the murders and you lied to them?” Parker asked.

“Yes,” Jake responded.

He pointed out when Jake’s friend, Andrew Carson, called him the day after the murders were discovered, Jake previously testified that he acted shocked and horrified, but had already known the eight were dead. He continued to lie about his participation in the murders years after, to his friends in Alaska, to the Gilleys, the Rhodens, to Beth and everyone else he encountered, Parker said. Jake acknowledged he had.

He wasn’t honest until his plea bargain emerged, Parker said.

“And the lies continue,” said Parker. Jake denied the claim.

“You, sir, are a cold-blooded killer, are you not?” Parker said.

“Yes,” Jake replied.

“And a liar,” said Parker.

“I was,” said Jake.

Parker requested Jake read the description written for a GoFundMe page created to allegedly raise money for legal costs Jake incurred while seeking custody of Sophia; the page was written by Angela, Jake said, but he’d edited it.

Parker pivoted, asking whether Jake had seen Frankie, Hannah Hazel, and others he’d already planned to murder at Trade Days, a local flea market where people can barter on different items; Jake said he had.

Parker asked whether there was a known story attached to Trade Days that circulated within Jake’s family, and the confessed murderer smiled, replying that there was.

“I bragged about selling a lady a chicken that was pregnant,” he said.

After Parker pointed out that was a ridiculous claim, because chickens aren’t mammals, Jake sobered and admitted he wasn’t sure if the story was true or not.

“I told that story often enough I can’t remember if it actually happened,” he said.

Parker began questioning Jake on his memory and whether he had issues remembering things; Jake conceded that he did sometimes.

“I would say my memory is kind of like a jigsaw puzzle,” he said, adding that, at times, he’ll remember something as true that wasn’t.

Referencing Jake’s plea deal and his agreement that, if he testified truthfully the death penalty specifications would be dropped for himself and his three family members, Parker asked if Jake thought life in prison was punishment. Jake said he didn’t.

The defense attorney then began questioning Jake about his future in prison, his questioning punctuated by the prosecution’s objections; Judge Randy Deering overruled most of Parker’s line of questioning.

Jake consistently told George he was going to Hell for the lifestyle he led, he conceded when asked by Parker. He was also present on more than one occasion to hear Angela ask George why he couldn’t be more like his brother.

Parker pointed out, not for the first time during cross examination, that George wasn’t even supposed to have been along for the murders, but changed his mind at the last minute to protect Jake; Billy and Jake planned the murders, Jake prepared the guns and Angela purchased the shoes, Parker said, and ended his cross examination.

During the prosecution’s redirect, Angela Canepa, special prosecutor, led Jake back through several of the points made by Parker on cross examination, pointing out that George, too, was taught “survival skills” by Billy, had his schoolwork completed fraudulently by Angela and was present through many of the thefts and moments Parker mentioned.

Canepa asked whether, while Jake may have been accused of being Angela’s favorite son, she’d also had a favorite grandchild.

“I accused her of Bulvine being the favorite grandchild,” Jake said, but added he wasn’t sure if his mother truly did have a favorite.

Jake had been close with his mother, but even closer with his brother, he confirmed for Canepa, and she asked if he remembered how he’d described their relationship when he’d confessed to prosecution in April 2021.

“I think I used the word, I think I said ‘two peas in a pod’ maybe, for the most part,” said Jake.

Canepa, too, questioned Jake on his memory — instead leading him to admit he remembered his testimony while in court, that George was present for the murders, that George helped build the false pick-up bed under which the brothers hid that night, that George wore a ski mask and a pair of the Walmart shoes and that he possessed the SKS rifle that night.

George had aimed the rifle, but failed to fire, Canepa asked; Jake said he didn’t know if George aimed, but that the rifle was pointed toward Chris Sr.’s home.

After Jake, instead, fired the rifle and Billy fired his .40 caliber Glock from inside the trailer, Canepa asked what Billy said to him when he ran, hysterical, out of the home.

“He had asked me to shoot him too,” said Jake.

In a reminder to the jury, Canepa re-questioned Jake on why he’d come forward to confess about the murders; he reiterated that he’d felt his grandmother’s confession was a sign from God and that he’d been praying for an answer as to what he should do. He also feared a trial, he said and wanted to see what the prosecution would bring to the table.

In Parker’s rebuttal, he fired out questions quickly, gesturing broadly while he did.

“Are you a stone cold killer?” he asked.

“I was,” said Jake.

“And a liar?” asked Parker.

“I was,” Jake responded.

“You sold your testimony to the state to save your life, didn’t you?” asked Parker, adding that Jake hadn’t heroically fallen on the state’s sword to save his family from the death penalty — he’d done it to save himself.

Jake denied this, and told Parker he offered his true testimony, though it did happen to save his life.

Questioning concluded shortly after and Jake stepped down from the witness stand for the final time as a prosecution’s witness. After the jury was dismissed, Richard Nash, George’s other defense attorney, asked Deering and the prosecution whether the death penalty specifications were now lifted from over their client’s head.

Canepa said the prosecution would rather discuss that later, in a less public format, and court adjourned, concluding the seventh week of testimony in the murder case.

More about Jake Wagner and his plea deal:

Jake pleaded guilty to the murders in April 2021, accepting a deal from the state.

In exchange for Jake’s testimony in the trials of any family members who face a jury, prosecutors have agreed to dismiss the possibility of the death penalty for himself, his parents, Angela and Billy, and his brother, George Wagner IV, all of whom face similar charges in connection to the killings.

In addition to pleading guilty to all eight counts of aggravated murder, which is punishable by life imprisonment, Jake admitted guilt to: