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Pike County murder trial: Jury hears from George Wagner IV's ex-wife as fourth week of testimony begins

'It was Angela's house, so it was her rules.'
Tabitha Claytor, George's ex-wife and the mother of his son, said the Wagners didn't allow her to leave the home to visit family, nor did they approve of her family coming to their home to see her.
Week three of testimony in Pike County trial
Posted at 8:59 AM, Oct 03, 2022
and last updated 2022-10-03 21:07:31-04

WAVERLY, Ohio — The fourth week of testimony continued Monday in the trial of a man accused of killing eight people in Pike County in 2016.

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.

Court reconvened Monday with the defense's opportunity to cross-examine Chelsea Robinson, the mother of Frankie Rhoden's oldest child. She opted out of being recorded during her testimony.

According to the media pool in the courthouse, Robinson testified that George and Frankie were friends until, Hanna May encouraged Robinson to be friends with George. After that, Frankie cut off communication with George, she said, and told Robinson not to talk to him either. The friendship was never repaired after that, Robinson said.

The next witness called to the stand, Jeffrey Tackett, also opted out of being recorded. He testified that he was a family friend of Billy Wagner, George's father. The two met when they were young teenagers, he said.

Tackett also worked at the Flying W Farms, owned by Billy's mother, Fredericka Wagner; Billy also lived there during the murders, taking care of his ailing father.

Tackett would go with Billy to chicken fights and he said he went hunting once with the entire Wagner family; he said Billy was "the best hunter."

Over time, Tackett became wary of Billy; he testified the Wagner patriarch would shoplift while out with people, making he and Chris Sr. uncomfortable. Tackett also alleged Billy once told him he'd gone to Mexico and "shot a bunch of people."

Billy, along with his wife, Angela, were arrested for illegally selling Rocky work boots out of the back of a semi trailer at the fairgrounds one year, and Tackett said Billy told him Angela would never flip on him.

One week before the Rhodens were murdered, Tackett said Billy threw his hip out trying to steal semi parts with Jake and George and asked Tackett to come pop it back into place; at Billy's home, Tackett said he saw guns and vests in Billy's room, including a .22 caliber Hornet gun and 30-round clips. Billy also told him he planned to buy a brass catcher, Tackett said.

After the homicides happened, Tackett said he learned about it on television and immediately called Billy, who wasn't home. Tackett testified that he thought Billy was responsible for the murders, and a few days later he told Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigations agents just that.

Tackett also alleged the Wagners had committed arson on three different occasions. He said Billy told him Jake and George used a turkey baster to catch their house on fire; they later burned another home they owned, and Billy claimed $250,000 in insurance money. During one of the fires, Tackett said Chris Sr. was present and was the one to call 911.

During the defense's cross-examination, George's defense attorney, John Parker, asked Tackett for elaboration on the chicken fights he claimed he attended with Billy. Tackett said Billy once asked him to go to Mexico with him to fight chickens after the murders, but he declined.

Parker asked how much money a person could make fighting chickens and Tackett said he once saw someone make $500,000 in Oklahoma. During that fight, he said a man died and the fighters threw around $14,000 in cash into the pit to help pay for his funeral.

"They are very generous people," said Tackett.

He also told jurors that Chris Sr. owed Billy around $40,000 — and that around $20,000 in cash Chris Sr. was holding for Billy was seized by law enforcement after the murders.

Tackett said he wore a wire for BCI several times while visiting the Wagners at their home on Peterson Road, but that each time Billy avoided him.

Prosecution next called Samantha Staley to the stand. Staley's father worked for Fredericka Wagner at the Flying W Farm and she said she spent time with Jake and George on and off throughout her childhood.

In 2013, Staley said her father suffered a brain bleed and stroke, which hospitalized him and left him bed-bound for some time afterward. She said because her family and the Wagners were frequently in close contact, she reached out to Angela on Facebook so she could alert Billy that his friend was in the hospital. Billy later came to visit, and the Wagners helped pay for things to set her father up at home after he was released from the hospital, she said.

George also helped buy Staley's daughter Christmas presents and paid her electric bill, she said.

When asked if she knew Angela, Staley said their relationship wasn't the best growing up.

"She's a one of a kind," said Staley, describing Angela as quiet, observant and overall unwelcoming.

Billy hid his generosity toward her family from his wife, Staley said, and George and Jake both hid their continued friendship with her. That didn't stop Staley from spending time with "the boys," as she referred to them.

Sometimes she would go extended periods of time without talking to them though, she said. However, before Jake began seeing Hanna, Staley said he called her.

"One summer I got a phone call," she said. "He did not know how to have intercourse, I guess. He asked if I could help him out."

She said she agreed, and the pair met up. She said it was a one time incident, though she said much of her life she'd felt Angela and her own mother tried to push her and Jake together, although she'd been more interested in George.

Staley also knew the Rhodens and said she'd dated Frankie from the time she was in seventh grade until she was in ninth grade; she didn't know the Rhodens and Wagners knew one another until Jake began dating Hanna Rhoden. She said she asked Jake how he knew Hanna and her family and he told her "we go way back."

After Jake and Hanna's child was born, Staley said she babysat for Hanna occasionally; Corey Holdren, the man Hanna May began dating after she left Jake, lived very close to Staley and she said she could see Hanna May's vehicle up at his house. She occasionally dropped Sophia off with her for just a few hours, claiming she needed a small break.

Eventually, she said Jake contacted her.

"I am unsure how Jake found out that I was even watching the child, but he was asking be what seemed like 999 questions," she said.

Jake told her he wanted the information to try and have Hanna May declared an unfit mother, so he could take custody of Sophia — something Staley said she didn't think could or should happen.

"She was a great mother, doing everything she could," said Staley.

Special Prosecutor Angie Canepa asked if she expressed that to Jake.

"I don't think he liked that at all, but yes, I did," she responded.

Messages between the two on Facebook were read aloud in the court room. In them, Staley told Jake she couldn't babysit Sophia any more because someone had been calling her mother and threatening her. Jake asked if Staley would text him information on Hanna so he could use it in court against her, but Staley declined and refused to watch Sophia any longer.

"I stopped talking to Hanna as well, I wanted no part in any of it," she said.

She also recounted a moment when, around one month after the Rhoden family were found murdered, Staley reached out to George and the pair, along with her husband, went fishing.

"He wasn't the same George that I knew," she said.

The George Wagner IV she grew up with had been bubbly, eager to laugh and eager to make others laugh, but the George who went fishing that day just seemed sad, hurt, lost and dead inside, she said. At some point during the outing, she mentioned the murders — specifically Frankie — and that she couldn't believe what had happened.

"I was pretty much told to shut the eff up," she said.

As Parker cross-examined Staley, she admitted that while they were growing up together, Jake consistently blamed George for wrongs Jake had committed. The brothers were very different personalities, she said, and while George was a bubbly, yet shy boy growing up, Jake was an overconfident momma's boy.

Jake was particularly prone to telling Angela everything, she said, except when Jake had done something wrong. Then, he would blame it on his brother, she said.

"Jake's a very honest person but he also loves to point fingers," she said.

Following Staley's testimony, prosecutors called Tabitha Claytor, George's ex-wife and the mother of his son, to the witness stand.

She met George when she was around 12 years old, she said, because her mother worked at a group home owned by George's grandmother, Fredericka. She would occasionally go to work with her mother, or to Fredericka's house, and she and her sister spent time with Jake and George. The pair began dating, she said, and George's parents would come to pick her up from her house to spend time with him. A year after they began dating, Claytor said George cut the relationship off.

Six years later, during her senior year in high school, she received a Facebook message from Hanna May, who explained she was dating Jake and wanted George and Claytor to re-connect. Not long after, she said she received a friend request from George and the two began speaking again.

Two months later, she moved in with the Wagner family. A year after they resumed dating, they got married and eight months after that, she gave birth to their son, Bulvine.

While Hanna May was able to occasionally leave to spend time with her mother, Claytor said the Wagners didn't allow her to leave the home to visit family, nor did they approve of her family coming to their home to see her. When Claytor went to the hospital to give birth, she said her family was not allowed to come — only George and Angela came along.

"Did you want your mother at the hospital?" asked Canepa.

"Yes, I did," said Claytor.

Angela was the rulemaker in the home, she said, and Angela decided who came and went in the house and when. She also dictated how chores, like cooking, cleaning and laundry, had to be done.

"It was Angela's house so it was her rules ... It all had to be done the way that she wanted it or you had to either redo it or she'd just do it herself," said Claytor.

Angela also had rules about the sexual interactions she could have with her husband, she said.

She and George were told that oral intercourse would send them to hell and that sex was only for procreation.

Each night, Claytor said she was forced to leave the bedroom she shared with her husband for a time.

"Towards the end of the night she would usually have me leave so she could sit there and scratch his back and talk about the day," she said.

After that, she was allowed to return to her bedroom, she said. After Bulvine was born, George moved out of the bedroom and into his parents room, she said. Prosecution asked who decided that would happen and Claytor said it was both George and Angela.

When Hanna May moved in with the family, Claytor said they didn't get along.

"We both were basically competing for Angela's approval," she said.

That approval never came for Claytor, she said; Angela would constantly tell her she was falling short and could never do much of anything right. Angela also accused her of stealing $400. Later, Claytor said, after the Wagners were arrested, her then-5-year-old son was able to move back in with her and told her Angela had also claimed Claytor poisoned them and was responsible for murdering the Rhodens.

While she lived with the Wagners, their home on Bethel Hill Road burned down; Claytor said the fire was intentional.

"Before it had burnt, we had moved the stuff we didn't want burnt from the house to a garage-type cabin that was on the property," she said.

They moved beds, dressers, clothing, deer heads, photographs, gun safes and guns to the shed before torching the home to collect insurance money, she said.

"The insurance company needed proof that we had the stuff in the house that we said we had in there, so to get that proof, Angela went and bought receipt books and we wrote out receipts for stuff that looked like it may have been in the house," said Claytor.

The family then purchased a new home with the insurance money and put the property in George and Jake's names, she said.

By that time, she said Hanna May was also living with the family most of the time.

Court broke for the day around 4:30 p.m. and Claytor will re-take the witness stand Tuesday morning.

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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