Jake Wagner: Plea, Testimony, and Overturned Sentence

Jake Wagner’s plea deal, entered in April 2021, required him to plead guilty to 23 charges — including all eight counts of aggravated murder in the 2016 Pike County massacre — and to testify against his father, mother, and brother. In exchange, prosecutors removed the death penalty as a possible sentence for Jake and for the three other Wagner defendants, and the agreement called for eight consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole.¹² Four years later, a different judge refused to impose that sentence, and the deal has been in litigation ever since.

What Jake Wagner Pleaded Guilty To

On April 22, 2021 — five years to the week after the killings — Jake Wagner switched his plea from not guilty to guilty on 23 counts.³ The charges included:

Eight counts of aggravated murder, one for each Rhoden or Gilley family member killed on April 22, 2016
Conspiracy
Aggravated burglary
Tampering with evidence
Unlawful sexual conduct with a minor, based on his sexual relationship with Hanna May Rhoden that began when she was thirteen

The eight murder counts each carried death penalty specifications at the time of the original indictment. Jake was one of four Wagner family members — along with his brother George Wagner IV and their parents George “Billy” Wagner III and Angela Wagner — charged with capital offenses following the November 2018 arrests.⁴

Terms of the Plea Agreement

The agreement was approved by then-Pike County Judge Randy Deering. Its central trade was straightforward: full cooperation from Jake Wagner in exchange for the state dropping capital punishment as a possibility for all four adult Wagner defendants.¹

On the sentencing side, the deal specified eight life sentences without parole, to be imposed at Jake’s own sentencing after his cooperation was complete.² That structure — plead now, testify, sentence later — is why the sentencing hearing did not take place until January 2025, nearly four years after the plea itself.

The death penalty concession extended to Jake’s family, not just to him. His mother Angela Wagner later used a related deal to plead to non-capital charges in September 2021.⁵ The removal of the death penalty for Billy Wagner, however, later became contested and was reversed on appeal in early 2026.⁶

The Testimony Jake Wagner Owed

Cooperation, not just the guilty plea, was the point of the deal. Jake delivered on it during his brother George Wagner IV’s three-month trial in 2022, giving the most detailed public account of how the killings were planned and executed.

He testified that his father Billy first proposed killing Hanna Rhoden in early 2016, and that Jake initially suggested staging her death as a suicide committed by her new boyfriend. Billy pushed for a wider plan to eliminate anyone who could identify the family or seek revenge.⁷

Jake described months of preparation: building silencers with parts bought on George’s credit card, buying a Chevrolet pickup and fabricating a false bed cover to conceal a passenger, purchasing sneakers and masks, dyeing hair.¹ Prosecutors said the family voted on whether to proceed and studied the victims’ routines and home layouts.⁸

On the night of the killings, Jake testified, Billy stopped the vehicle and asked whether they were really going through with it, and Jake said yes. He told the jury he personally shot five of the eight victims, including Hanna, her mother Dana, and her brother Christopher Jr. Billy shot Kenneth and Gary Rhoden.⁹

As for George IV, Jake said his brother was present but never fired. At one house, Jake testified, George took a firing position but “froze” and refused to shoot Christopher Rhoden Sr., so Jake took the rifle and did it himself. Under cross-examination, Jake agreed with the defense’s framing that George came along mainly to protect Jake from their father.⁷ The jury convicted George on all 22 counts, and he received eight consecutive life sentences without parole, plus 121 years.¹⁰

How the Sentence Broke From the Deal

By January 2025, the case had been reassigned. Judge Deering was no longer on it, and visiting Judge Jonathan Hein, a retired Darke County judge appointed by the Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice in May 2023, presided over Jake Wagner’s sentencing.¹¹

Judge Hein ruled that the original plea agreement’s sentencing terms did not bind him. Instead of eight life sentences without parole, he sentenced Jake Wagner to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 32 years. From the bench, he said: “If everybody wants the last judge’s sentencing deal they should have sentenced him under the last judge.”¹² He cited Jake’s cooperation and acceptance of responsibility, telling him: “32 years out you get your chance because you cooperated.”¹¹

The practical effect: the man who admitted personally shooting five people, including the mother of his child, could be eligible for parole in his mid-fifties.

The State’s Appeal and Where It Stands

Prosecutors objected immediately. Special Prosecutor Angela Canepa argued that Judge Hein abused his discretion by setting aside the negotiated sentence. The state appealed to the Ohio Supreme Court to reinstate the eight life-without-parole terms and separately moved to have Judge Hein removed from the broader case.²¹³

By mid-2026, an Ohio appeals court had thrown out Jake Wagner’s sentence, though the mechanics of his resentencing had not been finalized.¹¹⁶¹⁴

What the Deal Did and Didn’t Cover

The plea agreement resolved Jake Wagner’s own criminal exposure and eliminated capital punishment as a sentencing option for the four adult Wagner defendants charged with murder. It did not resolve the cases of two related defendants charged with helping cover for the family. Rita Newcomb, Angela Wagner’s mother, ultimately pleaded to a reduced misdemeanor obstruction charge in December 2019 and was sentenced separately in January 2025. Charges against Fredericka Wagner, Billy’s mother, were dismissed in June 2019 on speedy-trial grounds, without prejudice.⁵¹⁵

The deal also did not touch civil liability. Surviving Rhoden family members filed a wrongful death lawsuit in November 2020 against the four primary Wagner defendants and others; the family’s attorney estimated the case could be worth more than $1 million and suggested a default judgment against the imprisoned defendants might be more practical than trial.¹⁶

Jake Wagner’s cooperation is now on the record and cannot be undone; the question the appellate courts are still working through is what sentence that cooperation, and the plea signed to secure it, actually locked in.

1
WLWT. Pike County Massacre Trial: Jake Wagner Testifies
2
Fox 19. Pike County Massacre: State Appeals Jake Wagner’s Sentence
3
Fox 19. Pike County Massacre: Billy Wagner Appears in Court for Pre-Trial
4
Ohio Attorney General. Pike County Homicides: Family Arrested
5
NBC4i. The Pike County Massacre 10 Years Later: Where Court Proceedings Stand
6
Supreme Court of Ohio. State v. Wagner, 2026-Ohio-362
7
Court TV. Jake Wagner Testifies Against His Brother in Ohio Family Massacre Trial
8
The Guardian. Ohio Family Murders: Rhoden Wagner Trial
9
Fox 19. Jake Wagner Says He Grew Up Learning to Be a Criminal From His Dad
10
Fox 19. Pike County Massacre Hearing: George Wagner IV Appeal
11
Fox 19. 10 Years After Pike County Massacre, Families Still Wait for Closure
12
Fox 19. Pike County Massacre Sentencing Hearings
13
WLWT. Jake Wagner Sentence: Pike County Murders State Appeal
14
Local 12. Death Penalty Appeal Likely to Delay Billy Wagner Trial for Months
15
Cincinnati Enquirer. Pike County Charges Against Fredericka Wagner Dismissed
16
Fox 19. Pike County Massacre: Wrongful Death Lawsuit Filed by Victims’ Families