Eight life terms plus 121 years for murders linked to cockfighting

One suspected cockfighting family massacred another

            CINCINNATI,  Ohio;  MANILA, Philippines––Among the evidentiary photos and video obtained by Showing Animals Respect & Kindness during cockfights at Honest Abe’s pit in Pine Knot,  McCreary County,  Kentucky on December 17,  2022 was extensive documentation of the presence of small children,  with their supposed parents,  barely an arm’s length from the gamecocks

(See How SHARK stole Christmas from a bar full of alleged cockfighters.)

            Cockfighters of course like to talk about cockfighting as family entertainment,  even arguing that participation helps to hold families together.

“A pattern of corrupt activity”

But the purported family values of cockfighters were meanwhile on display for 51 days from the witness stand in a Cincinnati,  Ohio courtroom.

Four members of one suspected cockfighting family,  the Wagners,   stood accused of massacring seven members of another,  the Rhodens,  plus Hannah Mae Rhoden Gilley,  20,  fiancé of cockfighter Frankie Rhoden.

George Washington Wagner IV,  31,  the first member of the Wagner family to be tried,  was on November 30,  2022 found guilty on 27 related counts,  including eight counts of aggravated murder,  four counts of aggravated burglary, three counts of tampering with evidence,  and one count each of conspiracy, unlawful possession of ammunition,  forgery,  unauthorized use of computer or telecommunications, unlawful interception of communications,  obstructing justice,  and engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity.

Family that slays together stays together––in the penitentiary

Pike County Court of Common Pleas judge Randy Deering on December 20,  2022 sentenced Wagner IV to serve eight consecutive life sentences without possibility of parole for the murders,  plus another 121 years for the various other offenses.

Due for trial next will be Wagner IV’s father,  George “Billy” Wagner III,  50.

A second Wagner son,  Edward “Jake” Wagner,  29,  pleaded guilty to all eight murders on April 22,  2021,  in a deal that spared all four alleged conspirators in committing the murders from facing the death penalty.

Jake Wagner was sentenced to serve eight consecutive life terms without parole,  plus 100 years on fifteen additional charges,  including having had sexual intercourse with a minor.

Mother who allegedly plotted killings testified against husband & sons sent to pull the triggers

Angela Wagner,  52,  wife of George “Billy” Wagner III and mother of both Wagner IV and Jake Wagner,  pleaded guilty on September 10,  2021 to conspiracy to commit aggravated murder,  plus multiple counts of aggravated burglary,  tampering with evidence,  and other charges,  as part of a plea bargain contingent upon her testimony against the other defendants.

The prosecution has reportedly recommended that Angela Wagner receive a 30-year prison sentence.

The victims included Christopher Rhoden Sr.,  40,  whose local claim to fame was having once won $30,000 in a cockfight,  discussed in testimony before the jurors; cockfighter Clarence “Frankie” Rhoden,  20;  Dana Lynn Rhoden, 37;   Gary Rhoden,  38;   Hanna May Rhoden,  19; Hannah Mae Rhoden Gilley,  20;  Kenneth Rhoden,  44;  and Christopher Rhoden Jr., 16.

All were shot dead in or near their three rural homes and a trailer,  just before dawn on April 22,  2016,  near Piketon,  Ohio.

Three small children––two of them still nursing,  and one of them only four days old––were not shot,  but were left with their dead parents,  the four-day-old propped up by their killer to continue nursing from her mother’s corpse.

Cockfighting & dope

The killings were initially believed to have resulted from a cockfighting-related feud,  possibly also involving marijuana trafficking.

Eve Mueller,  spokesperson for then-Ohio attorney general Mike DeWine,  told media soon afterward that “Evidence consistent with cockfighting was found” at one of the murder scenes, including caged gamecocks,  and that marijuana “grow operations” were found at three of the murder sites.

The killings ,  however,  turned out to have originated from a custody dispute between Jake Wagner and Hannah Mae Rhoden Gilley,  with whom Jake Wagner wrongly believed he had fathered a child.

Statutory rape

Jake Wagner started a relationship with Hanna Rhoden when he was 20 but she was only 13,  the prosecution explained.  Jake Wagner impregnated Hanna Rhoden before she was 15,  and was the father of her first child,  but not of her second child,  conceived with another man after she left Wagner.

Jake,  however,  contended the second child was his,  and the rest of his family shared that belief despite Hanna Rhoden’s denials.

Witness Tabitha Claytor,  ex-wife of George Wagner IV,  testified that Angela Wagner,  the matriarch of the family,  dictated––and enforced––that she and Wagner IV could only have sex if they were intending to procreate,  and that any other sex act would send them to hell.

Angela Wagner evidently did not hold similar beliefs about cockfighting,  gambling,  drug-dealing,  or murder.

Rita Jo Newcomb

Another defendant,  Rita Jo Newcomb,  67,  on December 3,  2019 pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice for lying to a grand jury that was investigating the murders.

Explained Scott Jennings of WTVN,  “Newcomb is the mother of Angela Wagner, mother-in-law of George Wagner III,  and grandmother of George Wagner IV and Edward “Jake” Wagner.

“Newcomb,”  Jennings added,  “was originally accused of forging custody documents connected to Jake Wagner,  who allegedly had a child with one of the victims.  Investigators later determined Wagner was not the father of the child in question.”

(See Why is cockfighting the blood sport most often linked to murder?)

The other Newcombs

Piketon,  Ohio,  where the Wagners allegedly killed the Rhodens,  is about 50 miles straight north of Waterloo and Ironton,  Ohio.

On January 3,  2021,  alleged cockfighter James “Bub” Newcomb,  55,  whose relationship to Rita Newcomb is unknown,  and associate Shannon Lee Clark,  37,  were caught by Showing Animals Respect & Kindness [SHARK] hidden cameras in the act of attacking SHARK founder Steve Hindi and investigator Adam Fahnestock.

Convicted of felonious assault

James Newcomb was convicted on November 5,  2021,  following a two-day jury trial,  of one count of felonious assault for using his pickup truck to ram Fahnestock’s car,  running it off the road into a deep ditch,  after which the car was declared a total loss;  one count of felony theft for causing the loss or destruction of a SHARK drone,  the drone controller,  and miscellaneous camera equipment;  and one count of misdemeanor assault for beating Hindi.

Originally sentenced to serve from four to six years in the Ohio state penitentiary.  Newcomb actually spent just 10 months in prison before Ballard granted him judicial release on condition that he was to have nothing whatever to do with cockfighting,  people involved in cockfighting,  and any other form of criminal activity during five years on probation.

Dewey Huffman

James Newcomb’s wife,  Beckie Newcomb,  served for several years as secretary of the Ohio Game Breeders Association,  registered at the same address until July 2022.  Beckie Newcomb remained involved with the Ohio Game Breeders Association until at least two weeks after James Newcomb was sentenced in November 2021.

Beckie Newcomb is no longer listed as an Ohio Game Breeders Association director or officer,  and the association no longer uses the Newcomb Game Breeders Association address.

Subsequent to James Newcomb’s release,  Beckie Newcomb allegedly posted to Facebook a photo of James Newcomb with a man named Dewey Huffman,  described by Hindi in a November 11,  2022 letter to Judge Ballard as “a known cockfighter whom I understand to be currently in trouble in Lincoln County,  West Virginia,  for a cockfight held on May 22, 2022.”

Ballard is not known to have acted on the information.

Ballard on April 18,  2022 sentenced sentenced co-defendant Clark to serve four years on probation,  perform 200 hours of community service,  pay court costs,  and “complete a mental health assessment and comply with treatment recommendations.”

34 cockfighters & bettors presumed dead in Manila

Cockfighting and murder are also prominently linked in Manila,  Philippines,  where three former police officers and six other individuals “have been charged with kidnapping after a spate of mysterious disappearances,”  Agence France-Press reported on December 23,  2022,  “with dozens of victims feared dead.”

Thirty-four alleged cockfighters and cockfighting gamblers have been missing since 2021.

The three former police officers are accused of robbing and kidnapping Ricardo Lasco,  the operator of a cockfighting web site,  after raiding his home in San Pablo City,  Laguna,  in August 2021.

Five police officers––Daryl Paghangaan, Roy Navarette, Henry Sasaluya, Michael Claveria and Regil Brosas––were fired in connection with the case.

“There is just really no hope” for the missing

Apparently related charges were also filed on December 1, 2022 against Julie Patidongan,  of Laguna,  and a still unidentified associate for the alleged kidnapping of a man named Michael Bautista,  missing since April 28, 2021.

Added Agence France-Press,  “Six cockpit security personnel are also being charged with kidnapping after witnesses saw them bundle six players into a van against their will during a Manila cockfight in January 2021.”

“There is just really no hope for [the missing 34 cockfighters and cockfighting gamblers] to return home alive,”  Philippine justice secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla told Franco Jose C. Baroña and Francis Earl Cueto of the Manila Times on December 21,  2022.

“In all circumstances,  they are gone,”  Remulla said.  “In the presumption of judgment,  we really need to put that they are presumed dead.”

Please donate to support our work:

www.animals24-7.org/donate/