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Pike County murder trial: Experts testify about ballistics, shoeprint evidence

A judge ruled to allow shoeprint evidence and expert testimony in the case.
Week three of testimony in Pike County trial
Posted at 9:04 AM, Sep 27, 2022
and last updated 2022-09-28 09:02:05-04

WAVERLY, Ohio — Prosecution finished questioning witnesses about each of the four different crime scenes and have moved on to presenting ballistic evidence to the jury as the trial of a man accused of murdering eight people in Pike County continued Tuesday.

George Wagner IV — along with his mother Angela, father George "Billy" Wagner and brother Edward "Jake" Wagner — is accused of shooting and killing the Rhoden family members "execution-style." The family's bodies were found on April 22, 2016. He faces eight charges of aggravated murder, along with other charges associated with tampering with evidence, conspiracy and forgery.

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 Monday, prosecution called Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigations agent Matt White to the stand. White is a firearms examiner with the state agency, and he was the expert who examined and identified much of the ballistic evidence collected in all four crime scenes and during all eight autopsies.

White continued his testimony on Tuesday, explaining how he compared the different ballistic evidence collected from the victims and the crime scenes.

White said he believed all of the .30 caliber bullets recovered from the first crime scene, where Chris Sr. and Gary were found dead, were fired from the same gun. No cartridges for that firearm were ever recovered for comparison.

White then worked to try and identify what kind of firearm likely would have fired the bullets. An SKS rifle was the likely culprit for the .30 caliber high-powered rounds discovered at Chris Sr.'s house, White said. That particular gun is not extremely common, he said.

He went on to say he believed, through comparison techniques, that the .40 caliber bullets and casings recovered from the first scene, where Chris Sr. and Gary were killed, and the fourth scene, where Kenneth was killed, were all fired from the same .40 caliber weapon.

Based on the impression the firing pin made in the cartridge cases found, White said he determined early that they were from a Glock pistol.

After comparing the firing pin impression to several different generations of Glock pistols — starting from the fifth generation and working his way back — White said he believed the pistol was a second-generation model.

The multiple .22 LR casings and bullets recovered from the scenes and from the bodies of the victims were, in White's opinion, all fired from the same pistol.

Identifying the kind of gun that could have fired these casings and bullets was trickier, White said.

"I've never encountered a firing pin impression on a fired .22 cartridge case that looks like that before," he said.

The firing pin impression on the rim-fired cartridge started rectangular, but became a wedge shape at the end, while most rim-fired firing pin impressions are fully rectangular or circular, said White. Additionally, the pin impression did not extend past the rim of the cartridge — another unusual detail, White said.

After reaching out to other firearms experts, a BCI agent in Bowling Green, Ohio said he'd encountered similar characteristics from a Walther Colt 1911 pistol. White said he examined several test fires with several different Walther Colt 1911 pistols and corresponded with the manufacturer's design engineer in Germany. He ultimately determined this was the kind of gun used to fire the .22 caliber shots that killed Frankie and Hannah Hazel at the second crime scene and Dana, Chris Jr. and Hanna May at the third crime scene.

Defense attorney John Parker cross-examined White, asking about the possibility for silencer attachments and magazine alternatives with higher capacities. Prosecutors have alleged the Wagners used fuel filters to suppress their shots. Both the Glock and the Walther Colt pistols could come with threading on the barrel that would allow for a suppressor to be screwed on, White said, but the SKS rifle had no such accommodation.

Suppressing the shots from the SKS rifle would be difficult and would likely decrease overall accuracy, White said. It could also prove dangerous, because if the suppressor wasn't lined up with the barrel properly it could cause the bullet to shoot through the side of the suppressor, the barrel, or "catastrophically blow the gun up," he said.

Prosecutors asked during their redirect whether something could be welded to the tip of the rifle instead; White said it was possible, but that it would still likely decrease the accuracy of the weapon and the welded suppressor would still need to be carefully lined up with the barrel.

After White stepped down, prosecutors called Suzanne Elliott, a shoeprint evidence expert, to the witness stand. She opted out of being recorded audibly and visually.

Elliott explained to the jury how footprints in blood found at the first scene, where George Sr. and Gary were found dead, were matched to a pair of shoes she found.

Two shoe prints, found in blood amid drag marks in the kitchen of the first scene, were collected by BCI agent Shane Hanshaw in 2016. Matches could not be made between the prints found and any shoe patterns loaded into the BCI database, so Elliott said she went shopping.

She found the print pattern at a Walmart, on a pair of cheap shoes with velcro fasteners and, after checking different sizes, determined the prints were made by sizes 10.5 and 11. Both prints were from a left shoe, she said.

During opening statements, Special Prosecutor Angela Canepa said investigators found a receipt for two pairs of the exact same shoe inside a plastic storage bin when they executed a search warrant on property owned by the Wagner family.

Canepa also said investigators tracked down surveillance footage that shows Angela, George's mother, purchasing two pairs of those shoes at a Walmart in April 2016, not long before the murders were committed.

At the beginning of lunch on Tuesday, Judge Randy Deering announced court would adjourn for the day, though did not give a reason for the abrupt ending. Prosecutor Rob Junk told media at the courthouse that officials weren't able to talk about why court was suddenly adjourned, but that it was not a safety issue.

You can catch up on the day's testimony below:

Watch opening statements below:

You can read recaps of each day of the trial in our coverage below:

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