Mother and son given lengthy prison terms for their roles in the killings of 8 Ohio family members
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Two more family members convicted in the killings of eight members of an Ohio family received lengthy prison terms on Friday for their roles in the 2016 shootings, as prosecutions near completion in what has been described as the most heinous crime in modern Ohio history.
Visiting Judge Jonathan Hein sentenced Edward “Jake” Wagner to 32 years in prison — 12 on gun charges and 20 for the murders of five of the eight victims — with the possibility of parole in 20 years. It was a surprising turn, given that Wagner had pleaded guilty to aggravated murder and other charges and agreed earlier to serve eight consecutive life sentences with no chance of parole. However, Hein said he took into account other participants' sentences in the case, as well as Wagner's cooperation with authorities in solving the murders of seven adults and a teenager from the Rhoden family in southern Ohio’s Pike County.
Hein sentenced Wagner's mother, Angela Wagner, to 30 years including credit for six years served. She had pleaded guilty to her role in helping plan the slayings. Angela's mother, Rita Holcomb, was also sentenced, receiving five years of probation, a $750 fine and a suspended 180-day jail sentence, seven days of which she's already served, for lying to investigators.
“Each generation has its own people who can prove the depths of depravity of human nature, and that’s what this case did,” the judge said before handing down the sentences in a Waverly courtroom, about 80 miles (129 kilometers) south of Columbus. “It showed the boundless depravity of people who have no respect for others, only their own self-interest in mind.”.
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