Billy Wagner's Pike County massacre trial will be held in Seneca County, nearly three hours away.

A change of venue is about the jury pool. It is not a ruling on guilt. Judge Jonathan Hein found in 2024 that coverage of this case was so pervasive that prejudice is presumed in Pike County. Picking Seneca County finishes that ruling. Billy Wagner is the only one of the four whose case has not been resolved, and the state's case against him rests partly on two relatives who pleaded guilty and agreed to testify.

According to a filing in Pike County Common Pleas Court, Wagner's murder trial will be held in Seneca County in northwest Ohio, WLWT reported. The station said an entry dated Oct. 9 sent a certified copy of the venue order to the Seneca County Clerk of Courts in Tiffin, about 150 miles north of the Pike County courthouse in Waverly. FOX19 described the new location as nearly three hours away. The trial is scheduled to begin Jan. 11, 2027, after several delays, FOX19 and WCPO reported.

Visiting Judge Jonathan Hein granted Wagner's request to move the trial in November 2024 over prosecutors' objection, WLWT reported. "The Court finds that the intense scope of media coverage in this case - and other closely related cases - was so pervasive that prejudice is presumed," Hein wrote, according to WLWT. FOX19 reported his new decision cites Seneca County's rural character, its distance from the media markets that covered the case, and its courtroom, security, and other facilities. WCPO quoted the filing: "Seneca County is outside the media market for print and broadcast media which have traditionally covered this case and related cases; thus, the taint from prior publicity should be lessened." Local 12 reported the victims' families had fought to keep the trial in Pike County. FOX19 reported the judge left it to the Pike and Seneca county sheriffs to decide when Wagner moves from the Pickaway County Jail, noting that he is now close to his attorneys.

Eight people were killed in April 2016: seven members of the Rhoden family and Hannah Gilley, Local 12 reported. Billy Wagner is one of four Wagner family members charged in the killings. Local 12 reported that his son George Wagner IV was convicted and sentenced to life in prison without parole, and that his son Jake and his wife, Angela, pleaded guilty and agreed to testify in a deal that took the death penalty off the table for all four. A guilty plea by a co-defendant is that person's conviction. It is not proof against anyone else until a jury weighs it.

WLWT reported Wagner was back in court in Waverly earlier this month asking for a new defense team and questioning the evidence against him at a pretrial hearing. He has pleaded not guilty. With the case file headed to Seneca County, future filings and hearings will take place there, FOX19 reported. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.