Speaker 1: The cheerleaders at a gym in Buffalo have been recording
Speaker 1: themselves to make a new documentary where the news reporters,
Speaker 1: because one year ago a mass shooting changed their lives.
Speaker 1: He just walked around shot all the black people. The
Speaker 1: cheer squad, most of whom are black, had to figure
Speaker 1: out how to go on and how to compete. I
Speaker 1: wanted to win for them more than anything this season.
Speaker 1: Listen to the embedded podcast from NPR within the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 1: or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Carol Fisher and
Speaker 1: I'm hosting a podcast called The Girlfriends. It's Las Vegas,
Speaker 1: it's the nineteen nineties, and it is time to find
Speaker 1: a husband. There were four Jewish doctors who were felt
Speaker 1: to be eligible bachelors. One of them was of the
Speaker 1: Baron bat On paper he was perfect, but in reality,
Speaker 1: this guy's a wacko. He shouted to the point went unconscious.
Speaker 1: I would call him and I would say, I know
Speaker 1: you killed my sister. You can listen to The Girlfriends
Speaker 1: on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you
Speaker 1: get your podcasts. LA is expansive. There's nearly ten million
Speaker 1: people living here and it comes with a lot of noise,
Speaker 1: but if you tune those sounds out and listen close,
Speaker 1: you'll hear the real LA. What a Barjim, I'm going
Speaker 1: to be your father? You're feeling? This a fiction podcast
Speaker 1: mixtape about love. Listen to it on the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Toxico respond
Speaker 1: experiences Fico in First five California Pultuco Lilly said, well,
Speaker 1: you know, if you kill her, you're gonna have to
Speaker 1: kill Chris and Frankie because they will know you get
Speaker 1: it and they will come after you. Jake testified George
Speaker 1: was in a firing position. Jake said he told him
Speaker 1: to shoot, but he didn't. Jake takes the rifle from George,
Speaker 1: and then when Chris shows up in the doorway, he
Speaker 1: shoots him. What really stood out to me, it was
Speaker 1: just the way he talked about killing people like it
Speaker 1: was no big deal. This is the piked Masacre returned
Speaker 1: to Pike County season four, episode eighteen. Jake Wagner on
Speaker 1: the stand. I'm Courtney Armstrong, a television producer at Katie's
Speaker 1: studio with Stephanie Lydecker and Jeff Shane. It's important to
Speaker 1: note that George Wagner the Fourth pleaded not guilty to
Speaker 1: all charges. His father, Billy Wagner, whose trial is upcoming,
Speaker 1: also pleaded not guilty to all charges. At the beginning
Speaker 1: of the eighth week of testimony, I traveled to Ohio
Speaker 1: to be in the courtroom when jurors heard from the
Speaker 1: man who seems to be at the center of this trial,
Speaker 1: Jake Wagner. In April of twenty twenty one, on the
Speaker 1: five year anniversary of the murders, Jake pled guilty to
Speaker 1: eight counts of aggravated murder and agreed to testify against
Speaker 1: his own family, including his older brother George. In exchange,
Speaker 1: the prosecution removed the death penalty as a possible punishment
Speaker 1: for all. Wagner's judge, Randy Deering, allowed Jick Wagner to
Speaker 1: opt out from having his testimony recorded. That's why we
Speaker 1: will not hear Jake Wagner's voice in this episode. Still,
Speaker 1: his testimony is chilling, dramatic testimony in Pike County Today,
Speaker 1: brother versus Brother Today, Jake Wagner took the stand against
Speaker 1: George Wagner the Fourth. When Jake Wagner entered the courtroom,
Speaker 1: both his hands and feet were shackled with long chain manacles.
Speaker 1: He wore thick black glasses and a prison issued tan jumpsuit.
Speaker 1: His hair was slicked back and in a ponytail. I
Speaker 1: was not surprised to see him in jail clothes. You know,
Speaker 1: a lot of the reporters had been speculating that, oh,
Speaker 1: maybe they'll put him in street clothes. And I just
Speaker 1: thought to myself, I've never seen an inmate testify was
Speaker 1: put in street clothes. I mean, the prosecution wanted these
Speaker 1: people to be seen at least Jake and Angela as criminals.
Speaker 1: Now twenty nine years old, Jake Wagner has been in
Speaker 1: the Franklin County jail for nearly four years. The only
Speaker 1: noticeable change in his appearance as he looked stronger. He
Speaker 1: looked fitter than the thin, gangly man he was before
Speaker 1: his arrest. He looks like a different person now you
Speaker 1: see as a teenager, suddenly you got a con sitting
Speaker 1: there at the big table there in a a courthouse. It's
Speaker 1: an understatement to say Jake Wagner's testimony has been highly anticipated. Unsurprisingly,
Speaker 1: the courtroom was packed. This is me speaking with Stephanie
Speaker 1: from Ohio. Was anybody on the Wagner side that you
Speaker 1: could identify, or was it still a total no show
Speaker 1: for George. There wasn't a seat to be had completely filled,
Speaker 1: including extra seats that were put into the aisles, so
Speaker 1: that was just getting in. So it felt unlike any
Speaker 1: other day in the trial so far. It was a
Speaker 1: real buzz. There appeared to be no one there for
Speaker 1: George Wagner. A lot of the people outside of the
Speaker 1: media and victims family members were family members of the
Speaker 1: attorneys on the prosecution and defense sides. That's interesting because
Speaker 1: you never would really think that that's who would come,
Speaker 1: but this is their big moment, so for family members
Speaker 1: of the lawyer, that does make sense. After Jake took
Speaker 1: the stand, he looked directly at his brother George from
Speaker 1: across the room and smiled. For a brief moment. They
Speaker 1: made eye contact the first time in years before George
Speaker 1: looked away. Here's reporter a Jeanette Levy, who was in
Speaker 1: the courtroom. I was sitting right behind George and George
Speaker 1: made eye contact with him, but I don't think it
Speaker 1: was for very long. Was pretty short lived, and Jake
Speaker 1: just kind of, you know, he kept looking around a
Speaker 1: little bit like he was very it was almost kind
Speaker 1: of like this alert look. He kept turning his head,
Speaker 1: looking back and forth, and you know, then things started.
Speaker 1: The questioning started. Prosecutor Angiekaneppa started by asking Jake if
Speaker 1: it was difficult to testify against his own family. He
Speaker 1: said it was very difficult. When he was asked, would
Speaker 1: you love nothing more for your brother, your mother, and
Speaker 1: your father to be able to go home? And he
Speaker 1: said yes. The only other emotion Jake appeared to show
Speaker 1: that morning was when he mouthed quote, I am sorry,
Speaker 1: in the direction of the Roden family sitting in the courtroom.
Speaker 1: Then he calmly and with little emotion, walked Jers through
Speaker 1: the killings. During more than six hours of detailed testimony,
Speaker 1: Jake Wagner explained why he wanted to kill Hannah Rodin,
Speaker 1: the mother of his child. With Jake Wagner, what's fascinating
Speaker 1: about him is that he's kind of the doorway into
Speaker 1: what can be described only as a horror show. It's
Speaker 1: not just the night of the home songs, it's everything
Speaker 1: waiting up to it's the life but these people led
Speaker 1: In the year's proceeding, Jake Wagner detailed how his family's
Speaker 1: criminal activity began long before they were arrested for the Roden,
Speaker 1: Manly and Gilly murders. Prosecutor and JIW. Kaneppa asked Jake
Speaker 1: Wagner about the various homes and vehicles his family owned.
Speaker 1: We found out through Jake Wagner's testimony today that he,
Speaker 1: his brother, and his father would commit crimes together, including
Speaker 1: multiple arsons to collect insurance money and stealing high priced
Speaker 1: item from businesses. Jake admitted that his parents set fire
Speaker 1: to their own home on Bethelhill Road to collect the
Speaker 1: insurance benefits. He also testified that the Wagner's torched multiple
Speaker 1: vehicles for the same reason. Jake said they would steal
Speaker 1: everything from fuel, to building materials to livestock, also that
Speaker 1: he learned to pick a lock at a very young age.
Speaker 1: Here again is Law on Crime reporter and Gjeanette Levy.
Speaker 1: She's followed by forensic investigator Joseph Scott Morgan. They were
Speaker 1: taught these things so that they could get away with crimes,
Speaker 1: and not necessarily so they could be like good human beings.
Speaker 1: I mean, they were raised to be criminals. It's quite
Speaker 1: sad when you listen to them talk about how their
Speaker 1: dad would sit them down with like a lock pick
Speaker 1: set when they were seven, nine years old something like that,
Speaker 1: and teach them how to pick locks, and weird games
Speaker 1: about oh, if you were out and about and you
Speaker 1: spot a cop, you get a dollar. When you hear
Speaker 1: about the way that Jake grew up, where he was
Speaker 1: essentially discipled into a life of crime, Billy described it
Speaker 1: as he was teaching his boy survival skills, you know,
Speaker 1: how to essentially steal a car or hot wire car
Speaker 1: in case he ever got quote unquote kidnapped. And I'm thinking,
Speaker 1: you know, I don't know if any parent out there
Speaker 1: that sits around and thinks, well, let me tell my
Speaker 1: child how to steal a car in case they ever
Speaker 1: get kidnapped. I wonder. I wonder where all changes in
Speaker 1: tire rotations came in, you know, did you at least
Speaker 1: talk about that first, you know, And he's saying this,
Speaker 1: he's saving this from the stand, and you're really getting
Speaker 1: a peek behind the curtain at this life that they led.
Speaker 1: Jake told the courtroom his relationship with Hannah ma Rodin
Speaker 1: began when she was just thirteen years old. He said
Speaker 1: he met Hannah at the Pike County Fair, where she
Speaker 1: was showing off her p rabbits. Despite being four years
Speaker 1: older than Hannah, Jake asked her parents, Dana and Chris Rodin,
Speaker 1: if he could date her. At times their relationship was violent.
Speaker 1: Prosecutor Angie Kaneppa asked Jake if he ever choked his
Speaker 1: young girlfriend, as Hannah May had once claimed, and he said,
Speaker 1: I never choked her, and he was very like adamant
Speaker 1: about it, and he said, she was having a fit,
Speaker 1: and you know, I held her up against the wall
Speaker 1: and I put my arm on her collar bone, but
Speaker 1: I didn't choke her. I just held her there until
Speaker 1: she calmed down. And after he gave that answer, he
Speaker 1: kind of, like Angie Kaneppa kind of made a sighing noise,
Speaker 1: but it was just like he was talking about this like, oh,
Speaker 1: I didn't choke her. I was just you know, holding
Speaker 1: her there. It was like this minimization or justification or
Speaker 1: rationalization for basically holding your ex girlfriend against a wall
Speaker 1: because she was upset about something. And you know he's
Speaker 1: claiming he didn't choke her. Well, Hannah May saying he
Speaker 1: choked her like that his arm was on her throat.
Speaker 1: So some of these things were pretty strange to me,
Speaker 1: the way he would describe them. By age fifteen, Hannahme
Speaker 1: Rodent was pregnant and gave birth to her daughter she
Speaker 1: shared with Jake Wagner. Her tumultuous relationship with Jake ended
Speaker 1: in February of twenty fifteen, a little more than a
Speaker 1: year before the murders. Jake Wagner described his family's motive
Speaker 1: and one of the worst massacres in Ohio's history that
Speaker 1: led to the death of eight members of the Rodent family.
Speaker 1: After their relationship broke up, Jake testified that he and
Speaker 1: his mother, Angela began to have concerns about the safety
Speaker 1: of his daughter, who was living with the Rodents. This
Speaker 1: was true in particular after Hannah May started dating Corey Holdron,
Speaker 1: who Jake believed was dealing drugs. Jake said he was
Speaker 1: concerned his daughter wouldn't be safe living with the Rodents,
Speaker 1: even going as far as saying he was concerned would
Speaker 1: be molested. Since he said it happened in both his
Speaker 1: family and Hannah's family, Jake testified that his mother, Angela Wagner,
Speaker 1: was monitoring Hannah May's private Facebook conversations. Jake's concern for
Speaker 1: his daughter only grew when he became aware of an
Speaker 1: online conversation where Hannah said the only way she would
Speaker 1: give up custody of their daughter is if the Wagner's
Speaker 1: killed her First. Wagner said that his father, Billy Wagner,
Speaker 1: first mentioned a murder plot, but he would not let
Speaker 1: it happen. Jake testified he told Hannah he was concerned
Speaker 1: that their daughter could be molested, and he claims that
Speaker 1: Hannah was dismissive, saying, quote, if that happens, we'll just
Speaker 1: have to deal with it. That alleged response, Jake Wagner
Speaker 1: told the court was the tipping point. Jake Wagner said,
Speaker 1: by the winter of twenty fifteen and twenty sixteen, he
Speaker 1: was concerned that his daughter with Hannah Rodin might be molested,
Speaker 1: so he decided his only choice to protect his daughter
Speaker 1: was actually to kill Hannah. The prosecution says basically that
Speaker 1: that was made up, this fear that the little girl
Speaker 1: would be molested. The prosecution basically says that was something
Speaker 1: they kind of whipped up in their heads to justify
Speaker 1: what they wanted to do. And we get earlier in
Speaker 1: the trial of seeing text messages or Facebook messages where
Speaker 1: Hanname and Jake were talking about their child, and it
Speaker 1: was just amazing to me that in some points he
Speaker 1: would say things like I'll take her even if I
Speaker 1: have to do it by force, just some really eerie foreshadowing.
Speaker 1: So it just seemed to me that they for whatever reason,
Speaker 1: and everybody wants their children to be with them, but
Speaker 1: this seems to be some type of demand, like, no,
Speaker 1: this child is going to be with me. Once he
Speaker 1: made up as mine that Hannah may had to be killed,
Speaker 1: Jake testified that the Wagner family began to plan and plot.
Speaker 1: His first idea was to frame Hannah's boyfriend, Corey Holdron.
Speaker 1: Here's James Pilcher, longtime investigative reporter in Cincinnati, now with
Speaker 1: Local twelve. He's followed by Long Crimes and Jeanette Levy.
Speaker 1: Jake was convinced that something needed to be done, that
Speaker 1: they were going to kill Hannah and Corey and make
Speaker 1: it look like a murder suicide, and Billy said, no,
Speaker 1: you can't do that either, because they'll figure out it
Speaker 1: was awesome, they'll come after us. I don't want somebody
Speaker 1: up there on the hill with a sniper rifle killing
Speaker 1: us Billy said, well, you know, if you kill her,
Speaker 1: you're gonna have to kill Chris and Frankie because they
Speaker 1: will know who you did it and they will come
Speaker 1: after you. So it was just this insane like, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean you're gonna kill well, we're gonna kill her.
Speaker 1: We got to kill everybody else too. We're going to
Speaker 1: take a break. We'll be back in a moment. Oh.
Speaker 1: I'm Carol Fisher, and I'm hosting a podcast called The
Speaker 1: girl Friends. Back in the nineteen nineties in Las Vegas,
Speaker 1: a few of us dated the most eligible bachelor in town, Bob.
Speaker 1: He spoke several languages, he did medical missionary work, and
Speaker 1: he was Jewish. He was perfect on paper, but he wasn't.
Speaker 1: He really wasn't, he shouted into the point she went unconscious.
Speaker 1: Bob could lie about anything, but only takes the one
Speaker 1: time when somebody ends up dead. Unfortunately for Bob, us
Speaker 1: girlfriends know how to fight back. I wanted him to
Speaker 1: pay for his crime. He needed to be put to justice.
Speaker 1: I'll be honest with you. If I saw him right now,
Speaker 1: I'd spit on him. I would call him and I
Speaker 1: would say, I know you killed my sister. I will
Speaker 1: always hound you and haunt you. You can listen to
Speaker 1: The girl Friends on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast or
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts. They say history is written
Speaker 1: by the victors, but you know what they've left out
Speaker 1: a hell of a lot of juicy stuff. Date Abe
Speaker 1: Lincoln's assassination. Did you know a young couple was sitting
Speaker 1: right next to him when he was shot? It haunted
Speaker 1: the husband so much he later murdered his wife. Ah,
Speaker 1: we all know who invented that, right, and we'll think again.
Speaker 1: Truth is Alexander Graham. Bell stole the idea for the
Speaker 1: telephone and then claimed it as his own. For every
Speaker 1: pivotal moment in history, there's always a backstory, and it's
Speaker 1: usually way more interesting than the big story. From mysterious
Speaker 1: murders to the baffling sleep schedules of yesteryear to the
Speaker 1: fascinating lives of those just outside the limelight. Where going
Speaker 1: to uncover the forgotten pieces of history you didn't know
Speaker 1: you need it to know. Listen to the Backstory Rate
Speaker 1: with Me Patty Steele twice a week on the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, Hello,
Speaker 1: Malcolm Gladwell here, host of Revisionous History, a show about
Speaker 1: the overlooked and the misunderstood stories you won't hear anywhere
Speaker 1: else like our ongoing obsessive campaign to blow up the
Speaker 1: world's most focus college ranking system. Why not just throw
Speaker 1: in a few extra zeros or witness me after years
Speaker 1: of fancy public speaking, learning that I kind of have
Speaker 1: to start over. The tone that you had throughout the
Speaker 1: debate was very similar to some of the students that
Speaker 1: I do work with, and that's what I teach them
Speaker 1: not to do. We're making more revisionous history for you
Speaker 1: this year than ever from places all across this great
Speaker 1: country emergency rooms, huge theaters, small towns and shooting righteous
Speaker 1: and you want to put your thumb up like the
Speaker 1: US Are you gonna pull the trigger with this finger? Here? Okay,
Speaker 1: into revisionist history on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts
Speaker 1: or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm your host, Billy Man,
Speaker 1: and this is okay. Let's try again, getting closer, guys.
Speaker 1: This is my podcast. Yeah, I've set up. I've been
Speaker 1: a Grammy nominated record producer and entrepreneur for over thirty years,
Speaker 1: and that has put me in the room with some
Speaker 1: of the most successful individuals in the world. Kelly Rowland,
Speaker 1: Jill Cartman, Rinale Scoldsberry, Allie and agent Miss Gillies in here.
Speaker 1: You want somebody who's a you'll come to the right place.
Speaker 1: What I wanted to do was have honest conversations with
Speaker 1: them about their failures. I wasn't just changing jobs. My
Speaker 1: life was over. I was so close to getting fired.
Speaker 1: I was failing so bad, it said Kelly Rowland is
Speaker 1: no longer a viable artist. That really did a number
Speaker 1: on me. He said, you're boring, So get that hell
Speaker 1: out of my club. Even the most successful people deal
Speaker 1: with feelings of failure. But what they do is they
Speaker 1: embrace their up and they learn from it. Listen to Yeah,
Speaker 1: I've that up on the radio app, Apple podcast or
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts, Jake said. The Wagner spent
Speaker 1: three months preparing, buying everything from ammunition to shoes from
Speaker 1: Walmart to a device to jam phone calls. Jake even
Speaker 1: order to Captain Americo Winter Soldier mask, specifically for his
Speaker 1: brother George to wear. Jake Wagner said that his brother George,
Speaker 1: who's on trial, was with him when he bought a
Speaker 1: pickup truck and a false truck bed cover for those killings.
Speaker 1: On the afternoon of April twenty first, Billy Wagner told
Speaker 1: his sons this would be the night. Four days earlier,
Speaker 1: Hannah Rodin had given birth to her second child, so
Speaker 1: they knew she would be home. Billy Wagner also believed
Speaker 1: the cloudy weather would prevent surveillance satellites from tracking their movements.
Speaker 1: Wager said he dyed his hair a dark brown like
Speaker 1: a character during the movie Boondocks. Saints. Wagner said, before
Speaker 1: heading out, he watched a clip of the movie to
Speaker 1: quote psyche myself into what I was about to do next.
Speaker 1: Jake Wagner described how he walked barefoot to the truck
Speaker 1: to avoid tracking any dirt from his home. Here again,
Speaker 1: forensic expert Joseph Scott Morgan, we had longed to hear
Speaker 1: about what happened that night, what went into the planning.
Speaker 1: You know, I was particularly interested in the care that
Speaker 1: Jake talked about with walking barefoot when he went back
Speaker 1: to the vehicle. He wanted to prevent any kind of
Speaker 1: prints being left behind. He had enough sense about that,
Speaker 1: and he even knew about soil types, which is fascinating
Speaker 1: me because you know, there's an entire discipline. He's not
Speaker 1: a dummy. He was aware of that, he had a
Speaker 1: sensitivity to it. I think it's another kind of point
Speaker 1: along the continuum that goes to kill, because that's a
Speaker 1: premeditative factor. Then Jake described how they went from house
Speaker 1: to house killing eight people. Jake described how his father, Billy,
Speaker 1: as well as George all took part in these murders
Speaker 1: on that night, and he went into detail, describing that
Speaker 1: they modified the bed of their truck in order to
Speaker 1: hide George and himself in the back while his father
Speaker 1: drove them to the Rodents trailers. Once at the Roden's
Speaker 1: property on Union Hill Road, Billy Wagner lured Chris Roden outside.
Speaker 1: Jake said the plan was to shoot Chris Senior as
Speaker 1: he and Billy walked back towards the Roden's marijuana grow site,
Speaker 1: but the shot never came. Prosecutors were asking if George
Speaker 1: was going to be involved in the killings. Jake said yes.
Speaker 1: Jake testify the George was actually supposed to kill Chris
Speaker 1: Roden Senior. Jake testified George was in a firing position.
Speaker 1: Jake said he told him to shoot, but he didn't.
Speaker 1: After a few minutes outside, Chris Senior and Billy Wagner
Speaker 1: went back into the trailer where Chris's cousin, Gary Roden was.
Speaker 1: After a few minutes, Billy was able to convince Chris
Speaker 1: to come to the door one more time, and the
Speaker 1: killing spree began again. Investigative reporters James Pilcher and an
Speaker 1: Seinette Levy Jake takes the rifle from George and then
Speaker 1: when Chris shows up in the doorway, he shoots him
Speaker 1: with the s cast and he says he missed or
Speaker 1: couldn't get a shot. He missed the first shot that
Speaker 1: went above him, and then he'd lowered it, closed his
Speaker 1: eyes and just pulled off a bunch of shots. And
Speaker 1: that's later corroborated by the evidence where you see all
Speaker 1: of these other bullet holes all around the doorframe where
Speaker 1: he missed, but then obviously on the line hit Chris
Speaker 1: in the shoulder, in the belly, in the arm. I'll
Speaker 1: never forget seeing that autopsy photo of the arm. What
Speaker 1: really stood out to me it was just the way
Speaker 1: he talked about killing people like it was no big deal.
Speaker 1: You would think after you maybe fired the first shot
Speaker 1: at somebody's head, you might flinch, but it doesn't sound
Speaker 1: like there was any flinching on Jake's part. Inside, Billy
Speaker 1: Wagner killed Gary Rodin and fired several more shots into
Speaker 1: Chris Senior's body. Jake Wagner said his father came running
Speaker 1: out of the house in a quote nervous breakdown. Jake
Speaker 1: said that Billy came out and was freaking out, and
Speaker 1: he was like, you can't freak out now, it's too late.
Speaker 1: There's no turning back. Jake went through Chris Roden's Senior's
Speaker 1: pockets and grabbed the keys to the marijuana shed so
Speaker 1: he could remove the hard drive from the security system.
Speaker 1: When Jake returned to the trailer, he said Chris and
Speaker 1: Gary Roden's bodies have been moved into the back bedroom.
Speaker 1: Jake testified he threw a blanket on top of them,
Speaker 1: but admitted to the jury that he didn't know why.
Speaker 1: Throughout his testimony, Jake appeared calm and responsive, and several
Speaker 1: times throughout it he would even look at his brother George. However,
Speaker 1: I can say that George would avert his gaze multiple
Speaker 1: times and appeared to not even want to look at
Speaker 1: his brother. Next, the Wagners went to Frankie Roden's home.
Speaker 1: Jake said after he crawled through a window, he let
Speaker 1: his brother and father in through the front door. Frankie
Speaker 1: Roden's three year old was lying on the couch. Jake
Speaker 1: said he walked past the sleeping child to the back
Speaker 1: bedroom and shot Frankie Rodin in his head as he slept.
Speaker 1: He further testified that Frankie's fiance, Hannah Hazel Gilly, began
Speaker 1: to wake and Jake said he shot her too. Then,
Speaker 1: for no explained reason, Billie Wagner shot both Frankie and
Speaker 1: Hannah Hazel Gilly in the head as well. Their six
Speaker 1: month old son was sleeping between them. It was quite
Speaker 1: chilling in a way, and I feel like that word
Speaker 1: is sometimes overused, but just the matter of fact way
Speaker 1: in which he described shooting people, it was just very nonchalant,
Speaker 1: according to Jake. Then he his brother, George, and father
Speaker 1: Billy Wagner went to Dana Roden's home. She had just
Speaker 1: arrived home from work. The door was unlocked, and Jake
Speaker 1: said he just walked in. He was surprised to see
Speaker 1: Dana awake in her bed. Here again, investigative reporter Anjeanette Levy.
Speaker 1: He's literally standing in the hallway, and he said he
Speaker 1: can see inside Dana's bedroom from where he was standing,
Speaker 1: and then he could also turn his head and see
Speaker 1: inside Hannah May's bedroom. He could see that Dana was
Speaker 1: on her cell phone. He could see the light from
Speaker 1: her cell phone shining on her face. And she made it.
Speaker 1: She looked at him and made a gasp, and he
Speaker 1: said he took a step and he shot her like
Speaker 1: I think twice, and then he took and then he pivoted.
Speaker 1: He said he was at a pivot point. He moved
Speaker 1: into Hannah May's bedroom. She made a noise, she saw him,
Speaker 1: and he shot her in the head. And then he
Speaker 1: went back and he shot Dana again. There was no
Speaker 1: hesitation on his part. It was just really disturbing. Before leaving,
Speaker 1: Jake said he realized Hannah's forty old newborn was in
Speaker 1: the room and was concerned she might starve. He said,
Speaker 1: you know, I know it doesn't really makes sense, but
Speaker 1: I didn't want to starve. I thought that if you know,
Speaker 1: it took too long for them to find the bodies,
Speaker 1: he might starve. So I moved Hannah so she could breastfeed.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's a newborn baby. Newborn babies are helpless
Speaker 1: as can be. And just that weird thought that you
Speaker 1: thought a four or five day old baby is going
Speaker 1: to nurse off her dead mother. It's just so crazy.
Speaker 1: Jake Wagner then walked into Chris Roden Junior's bedroom and
Speaker 1: shot him point blank. Jake said then that he, his
Speaker 1: brother George, and father Billy drove to Kenneth Roden's home
Speaker 1: where his father Billy killed him. He was the final victim,
Speaker 1: and he was murdered with one gunshot. According to Jake's testimony,
Speaker 1: the Wagner's collected shell casings, cell phones and returned to
Speaker 1: their home on Peterson Road. Here's Jeff speaking with attorney
Speaker 1: and legal analyst Mike Allen on the impact of Jake
Speaker 1: Wagner's chilling testimony. I'm just curious, like what your take
Speaker 1: on those impactful moments are and how they kind of
Speaker 1: changed the course of this trial moving forward. His testimony
Speaker 1: appeared credible to me. It didn't sound like he was
Speaker 1: puffing it up or exaggerating it to a great degree.
Speaker 1: And I just think he was believable. And do you
Speaker 1: think that level of gory detail like Hannah Rodan's last moments.
Speaker 1: Does that move the jury in a way that none
Speaker 1: of the other stuff has probably up until this moment. Absolutely, absolutely,
Speaker 1: I'm sure those jurors were riveted hearing that testimony, because,
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, that's the guts of the whole thing. Again,
Speaker 1: you know, that's why everyone is there, the judge, the jurors,
Speaker 1: the prosecutor, the defense lawyer is because of what he did,
Speaker 1: what Jake did at that time, and it's just a real,
Speaker 1: real important part of the trial. In the aftermath of
Speaker 1: Jake Wagner's first day of testimony, the media pool filed
Speaker 1: with Judge Randy Deering to allow cameras in the courtroom
Speaker 1: for the rest of Jake's testimony. The media argued that
Speaker 1: the public had a right to see and hear all
Speaker 1: of the testimony in the most expensive murder investigation in
Speaker 1: their state's history. Under Ohio law, witnesses can object to
Speaker 1: being filmed or recorded. In early October, an Ohio Court
Speaker 1: of Appeal sided with the media outlets who challenged the law,
Speaker 1: striking down parts of it, but Judge Deering continued to
Speaker 1: allow witnesses to opt out, as is his Right after
Speaker 1: Jake Wagner's first day of testimony, a coalition of media
Speaker 1: groups hired a first Amendment rights lawyer to visit the issue.
Speaker 1: A hearing was scheduled for the next day. Here's James Pilcher.
Speaker 1: Another eventful day here in Waverley as Jake Wagner, the
Speaker 1: younger brother of defendant George Wagner, took the stand for
Speaker 1: the second straight day to testify against his brother. Inside
Speaker 1: the courtroom, prosecutor angiw Kinneppa asked Jake Wagner to describe
Speaker 1: what he and his family did after arriving at home
Speaker 1: immediately following the murders. Today's testimony were picked up right
Speaker 1: where they left off Monday, where Jake, Billy, and George
Speaker 1: had returned home from the killings at about four to
Speaker 1: thirty am on April twenty second. Now, he says on
Speaker 1: that night they actually drove back to their family barn
Speaker 1: and began burning their clothes to get rid of any
Speaker 1: evidence on them. Jake also says he took each of
Speaker 1: their guns and began cutting them in half with power tools,
Speaker 1: and even went so far as to try burning them
Speaker 1: with a torch. However, Jake said he was unable to
Speaker 1: melt down the weapons, so instead he burnt off the
Speaker 1: serial numbers and then hit them. Then he admitted to
Speaker 1: burying pieces of the guns in the barn underneath the
Speaker 1: support beam, which he dug up with help from George.
Speaker 1: Once they were done cleaning up, they went inside to
Speaker 1: change clothes. Jake said he saw his mother, Angelo Agner,
Speaker 1: in the kitchen, but did not speak with her. Later
Speaker 1: in the morning, friend Andrew Carson called Jake and asked
Speaker 1: if he'd heard what happened. Jake said he had seen
Speaker 1: it on the news. Once news of the rodent's death
Speaker 1: began to spread, Jake says he refused to speak about
Speaker 1: it with his family while in private, and even tried
Speaker 1: to forget about it completely out of guilt. Let's stop
Speaker 1: here for another break. Several weeks after the murder, as
Speaker 1: Jake said, BCI agents came to the Wagner's home. It
Speaker 1: was after this visit that the Wagners began to worry
Speaker 1: they were under surveillance. Billy Wagner decided they should dig
Speaker 1: up the weapons and place them into a concrete bucket
Speaker 1: and drop them into a lake on his parents' property.
Speaker 1: The weapons remained underwater until the Wagners were arrested in
Speaker 1: twenty eighteen. The best plead bargain in the state of Ohio.
Speaker 1: It is how the defense described the deal that Jake
Speaker 1: Wagner made to avoid the death penalty. On the third
Speaker 1: day of Jake Wagner's testimony, the defense took over questioning immediately.
Speaker 1: George Wagner's attorney, John Parker, tried to paint Jake as
Speaker 1: a liar who turned on his own brother to avoid
Speaker 1: the death penalty. Many and the jury were poised in
Speaker 1: their seats. As a defense attorney, John Parker said, you
Speaker 1: got off the hook for the death penalty for killing
Speaker 1: the Rodents, yet your brother, who you admit did not
Speaker 1: kill any of them, is still facing death. Parker quickly
Speaker 1: asked him question after question to poke holes in Jake's
Speaker 1: account of the massacre. The defense argued during its cross
Speaker 1: examination that Jake Wagner murdered everyone and that George tried
Speaker 1: to stop the murders. The defense read quotes from Jake's
Speaker 1: statements to investigators that said George didn't like the idea whatsoever.
Speaker 1: He thought of Hannah as a sister. He said he
Speaker 1: didn't want to do it. Don't trust Dad. He decided
Speaker 1: to go because he was thinking Dad was trying to
Speaker 1: set me up. Then the defense led Jake through each
Speaker 1: step of the massacre as he smiled at the strangest times.
Speaker 1: After the second day of Jake Wagner's testimony, I spoke
Speaker 1: with Jeff and Stephanie. Something that really struck me from
Speaker 1: Jake's first day of testimony was his attempted interaction with
Speaker 1: the Roden family, mouthing I'm sorry, or trying to make
Speaker 1: eye contact with George. Did you see any of that
Speaker 1: and what was that like in person? If you did, No,
Speaker 1: there really wasn't any of that. Upon cross examination, I
Speaker 1: believe the attorney mentioned did three or four times because
Speaker 1: it was so pronounced. Was Jake's smiling slash smirking, the
Speaker 1: same thing that we all noticed and commented on when
Speaker 1: he pled guilty, specifically when he was asked about killing
Speaker 1: Hannah Rodin and he kind of smirked. And what Jake
Speaker 1: did was acknowledge. He said, I know this is a
Speaker 1: very serious matter. It's not funny. It's just something happened.
Speaker 1: Anyone who knows me knows that I smile at the
Speaker 1: worst moments, right like when they're watching the Bundac Saints
Speaker 1: clip in court. He's smiling, at least that's what I
Speaker 1: read the defense attorney. He had an interesting way of
Speaker 1: getting to say stuff, And what it appeared to be
Speaker 1: was that the defense attorney was kind of doing everything
Speaker 1: he could to get Jake to contradict himself, even in
Speaker 1: small ways from what he has laid out. So as
Speaker 1: an example, he said, oh, so you shot Hannah rode In,
Speaker 1: the mother of your child, in the back of the head.
Speaker 1: He said, no, I shot her in the front of
Speaker 1: the head and was smiling. So is he just a
Speaker 1: sociopath or just as horrible social skills? I mean, what's
Speaker 1: your Obviously can't diagnose him, but I hadn't realized the
Speaker 1: extent of just how long everything took. For example, and
Speaker 1: here are a couple of things that came to light today.
Speaker 1: They actually stopped. They being Billy, Jake, and George. They
Speaker 1: made a stop on the way to Chris Roden's house.
Speaker 1: What and Billy was driving, Jake was under he had
Speaker 1: constructed in the back bed of the car. He had
Speaker 1: constructed a wooden platform and put bales of hay under it,
Speaker 1: and was underneath that to hide. So he could lie
Speaker 1: in wait to then sniper under the car. On the
Speaker 1: drive there, Billy pulled over and said, are you sure
Speaker 1: you want to go through at this? You know now
Speaker 1: the time to turnaround if dot And the answer was
Speaker 1: to just continue on shocking. Later, the courtroom was shown
Speaker 1: some of the graphic crime scene photos. Jake admitted that
Speaker 1: he had tried to block the gruesome images from his mind.
Speaker 1: Can you imagine having to look at those photos now
Speaker 1: with distance, knowing that you were the perpetrator, But it's
Speaker 1: a different perspective you're seeing it in a photograph. Has
Speaker 1: he seen crime photos yet? Yes? On cross examination, the
Speaker 1: attorney was reminding Jake. He said, you have seen pictures
Speaker 1: of Kenneth Roden, who was shot one time in the eye,
Speaker 1: the similarity of just as Hannah Gilly was shot straight
Speaker 1: through the eye. And Jake said, oh, when I look
Speaker 1: at the photos, I try I don't want to look
Speaker 1: at any of the wounds. I try not to. Tony
Speaker 1: said why, and he said, because I don't want that
Speaker 1: to be in my memory, you know. Tony said, well,
Speaker 1: that must be really nice. Hanname Rowden's final moment was
Speaker 1: him smiling at her. Can you imagine She's waking up,
Speaker 1: maybe allegedly in her bed, nursing her child, and you
Speaker 1: see your ex smiling at you. Those are her final moments.
Speaker 1: At the end of Jake Wagner's testimony, George Wagner's defense
Speaker 1: attorney John Parker once again asked Jake if he was
Speaker 1: a stone cold killer. Jake said yes. Parker accused Jake
Speaker 1: Wagner of selling his testimony to the State of Ohio
Speaker 1: and implicating George to save his own life. Jake insisted
Speaker 1: he had provided truthful testimony. Parker then said, while waving
Speaker 1: his hand, dismissively. Take him away, Judge, no further question
Speaker 1: here again. Legal analyst Mike Allen on the impact of
Speaker 1: George Wagner's three days of testimony. Nobody was contending, not
Speaker 1: the defense certainly, and not the prosecution, that George shot anyone.
Speaker 1: That was never the case. I mean, the closest he got,
Speaker 1: according to the testimony, was he was supposed to pull
Speaker 1: the trigger on one of them, but he couldn't. And
Speaker 1: then Jake had to do it. What the State of
Speaker 1: Ohio had to show, and I watched this closely. They
Speaker 1: had to show that George was a part of the
Speaker 1: preparation for the murder murders. He was a part of
Speaker 1: the execution, although somewhat a small part in the execution
Speaker 1: of the murders, but he was a really big part
Speaker 1: in the aftermath with respect to disposing of evidence and
Speaker 1: things like that, and the state showed that. More on
Speaker 1: that next time for Warren. For me on the case
Speaker 1: and relevant photos, follow us on Instagram at Katie Underscore Studios.
Speaker 1: The Piked and Masaker is produced by Stephanie Lydecker, Jeff Shane,
Speaker 1: Connor Powell, Andrew Arnow, Gabriel Castillo and me Courtney Armstrong.
Speaker 1: Editing and sound designed by Jeff ti Music by Jared Aston.
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