Angela Wagner's testimony raises stakes for son, accused murderer George Wagner
The 34th day of George Wagner's murder trial featured more troubling testimony that attorneys for the 31-year-old will have to contend with.
On the witness stand on Tuesday was Angela Wagner, George's mother.
When she entered the courtroom, Angela glanced briefly at George who kept his head down, despite it being the first time he's seen his mother in person since they were both arrested four years ago. That's when police charged George and Angela, her husband Billy Wagner, and their other son Jake Wagner with killing eight members of the Rhoden family in April 2016.
Angela and Jake confessed last year.
Last week, Jake was on the stand, describing the murder weapons used and implicating George in the homicides.
Tuesday, it was Angela's turn. She told jurors that she bought shoes at a Walmart for her sons to wear the night of the murders, while George and Jake waited outside the store. She also described forging custody documents, in an effort to keep a daughter that Jake had with victim Hanna Rhoden with the Wagners, in case anything bad happened.
"She admits to buying the shoes for her sons, which, of course, she had already admitted to at the border. She admits to Googling and printing out those custody documents, to forging Hanna May's name to those documents, to also forging her mother's notary signature," Special Prosecutor Angela Canepa said during her opening statement several weeks ago.
Angela Wagner, who declined to let her testimony be shared outside the courtroom, testified that while she knew what was going to happen six years ago, the homicides still shocked her. She remembered asking her husband Billy why there were so many victims and she said he replied, "Because they were there."