George “Billy” Wagner was in Pike County Common Pleas Court on Monday. Judge Jonathan Hein, who replaced Judge R. Alan Corbin in the spring, heard oral arguments from the defense team and the state on a change of venue motion.
Wagner’s team filed an Amended Motion for Change of Venue on June 22, 2023, and the state filed its opposing document on August 30 of last year. The defense filed a response on October 3, 2023 before the court heard oral arguments on each side of the issue on October 4, 2023 in front of then-Judge R. Corbin.
Judge Corbin made the ruling on November 20 that Wagner’s change of venue motion was denied and he would stand trial in Pike County.
After Hein was tapped as the new judge, the defense filed a supplemental change on venue motion, which the defense, with new evidence, could do whether there is a new judge or not.
Because of Corbin’s ruling, the state made a res judicata argument in response to the motion. Res judicata is a Latin term that refers to a final judgment that is no longer subject to appeal.
Defense attorney, Kaitlyn Stephens, made the team’s statements for the motion Monday. She argued for a change of venue citing a Supreme Court ruling stating that there are “rare, limited circumstances” where presumption of prejudice exists. Stephen added that any attempt to seat a jury would be done so in vain.
Presumption of prejudice is a legal term that refers to a situation where prejudice is assumed to have occurred without the need for evidence.
“With respect to the state’s argument of res judicata, the court notes the state was in agreement of overruling the motion without prejudice so that it could be revisited at the appropriate time if circumstance so warranted.
“We would submit due to increased media coverage from the last hearing date that these circumstances have absolutely changed,” Stephens said. “We’re here today to ask the court to go ahead and grant this change of venue argument.”
Next Stephens laid out the defendant’s constitutional protections of presumed innocence and the right to a fair and impartial jury. Stehens also reminded the court that the burden of proof lies with the prosecution.
“If our motion for change of venue is denied, these bedrock constitutional guarantees to our client will also be denied,” Stephens said.
Stephens argued that statements made by law enforcement officials after George W. Wagner IV’s conviction are statements that “no juror should reasonably be expected to shuck from sight.”
Another argument Stephens made was that the size of Pike County and the media coverage of the previous trial could taint a jury pool.
“The Pike County News Watchman covered this case extensively,” Stephens said.
Stephens also listed many other media outlets that also covered the case.
“All of these news outlets saturated the news market in this very small county,” Stephens said. “There are roughly 17,000 registered voters in this county. By way of comparison the Columbus Crew (soccer) stadium holds more seats than registered voters in Pike County.”
Special Prosecutor Angela Canepa argued against and started by saying that this matter had been decided.
“We shouldn’t even be talking about this again based on res judicata,” Canepa said.
“On Nov. 20, 2023, Judge Corbin issued a five-page statement or decision, in which he clearly weighed the four factors (provided by Skilling v. United States) and made a specific finding that there was not presumed prejudice in this case.”
Judge Hein pushed back at Canepa saying that the rules do allow for the defense of the court to raise the issue of change of venue.
Canepa agreed that rules provided the defense or court the opportunity but does not believe that the issue should have been raised.
“In the state’s opinion, that shouldn’t have sailed because the judge already ruled on this issue,” Canepa said. “Judge Corbin already decided the issue after identical arguments and he made his finding based on that.
Canepa said that the court is relitigating matters that were decided last year. Canepa charged that the defense had no new evidence and argued the defense team was making the same evidence that it did in November.
Canepa started to make arguments about the time between the crimes, pleas and convictions of co-defendants before Hein cut her off and quizzed her on the purpose of jury selection.
Canepa said the goal was to get a fair jury for both sides.
Hein agreed but asked Canepa what she is trying to accomplish as she is vetting jurors.
Canepa answered by saying she would be making sure the prospective juror would have no bias toward or against either side in the case and make sure they wouldn’t be biased in any issues she knew would be presented in her case.
Canepa ended her statement by going back to Judge Corbin’s ruling made in November and argued there was no new evidence and only more time has passed since the co-defendants’ proceedings.
The next hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, Nov. 6 where other motions not decided by that time will be argued.
Bret Bevens is editor of the Pike County News Watchman.
Local News
Comments / 0