Thread by @pattinewberry

As on Tuesday afternoon, Jake Wagner spent much of today reviewing earlier witness testimony in the #PikeCountyMassacre of his brother #GeorgeWagnerIV. But there were a few surprises of note. (Photo: @Brooke_LaValley @DispatchAlerts) 1/13

Special Prosecutor Angela Canepa reminded the jury that Jake Wagner cut a deal with the state to escape the death penalty in exchange for agreeing to testify. She read each of the charges against him and each name of his victims. He confirmed all. 2/13

Canepa also reminded the jury that Jake Wagner will serve eight consecutive life sentences for shooting five of the eight Rhodens to death in April 2016. She asked Wagner if he remembered that Judge Randy Deering earlier told him he would die in prison. "Yes," he said. 3/13

Canepa asked what else Jake Wagner hoped to get from his deal with Ohio. "If at all possible, one last family moment with my mother, brother and father, if they were permitted," he said. 4/13

Canepa asked Jake Wagner if the rest of the family helped plan, participate and cover up the Rhoden killings. He said yes, "to a certain extent." 5/13

In his first 90 minutes on cross exam, Wagner IV attorney John Parker quickly moved to two key points: 1. His client is facing the death penalty; 2. Jake Wagner is not. "He did not fire a shot, did he?" Parker asked Jake Wagner about his brother. "No," Jake Wagner replied. 6/13

Parker's next retort drew immediate objection from Canepa and co-Special Prosecutor D. Andrew Wilson. "You realize you just got the greatest plea bargain in the history of plea bargains?" he said. 7/13

In his April 2021 deal, Parker told jurors, Jake Wagner told state attorneys that Wagner IV and their mother, Angela Wagner, were against the plan to kill the Rhodens. "They tried to talk me out of it," Jake Wagner said then. "George didn't like the idea whatsoever." 8/13

Jake Wagner also said that his brother warned him not to trust their father. "He was thinking Dad was trying to set me up," Jake Wagner said. To that Parker asked, "George went with you to protect you from your father?" Jake Wagner replied: "Yes." 9/13

Parker then walked Jake Wagner through the night of April 21-22, 2016, revealing some additional details of the Rhoden killings. 10/13

Jake Wagner earlier this week admitted to killing Dana Manley-Rhoden and her three children, Frankie Rhoden, Hanna May Rhoden and Chris Rhoden Jr., along with Frankie's fiancee Hannah Hazel Gilley. He also admitted to shooting but not killing Chris Rhoden Sr. 11/13

Jake Wagner also implicated his father in the deaths of Chris Rhoden Sr., his cousin Gary and his brother Kenneth Rhoden. His father went into those crimes scenes alone, Jake Wagner said, with the victims discovered shot to death afterward. 12/13

In a new development, Jake Wagner on Wednesday said his father also fired additional bullets into Frankie Rhoden after he was already dead. Parker indicated he had never heard that detail before. 13/13