WAVERLY, Ohio — George Washington Wagner IV, one of the people at the center of eight coldblooded killings that devastated a southern Ohio family, was sentenced Monday to an equal number of consecutive life sentences with no chance of parole.

WAVERLY, Ohio — In the end, one of Ohio’s most complex and costly murder trials came down to one brother’s word against the other’s. On Wednesday, jurors in Pike County convicted George Washington Wagner IV, 31, on all 22 counts he faced in the April 2016 killings of eight members of a southern Ohio family.

Prosecutors dropped eight aggravated murder charges on Friday against Angela Wagner, who was charged with her family in the elaborately planned, execution-style slayings of eight members of another southern Ohio family in 2016. In exchange, Wagner, 50, agreed to plead guilty to 14 lesser charges — including conspiracy to commit aggravated murder, burglary, possession of firearms, tampering with evidence, forgery, obstructing justice and engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity.

Edward "Jake" Wagner said he wanted a happy home life, to keep his young family together, and to see his daughter grow up safe and happy. But, instead, he and his family decimated all hopes for that future five years ago. Wagner, now 28, on Thursday pleaded guilty to eight counts of first-degree murder and 15 lesser charges on the anniversary of the methodically calculated and cold murders of his daughter's mother, Hanna Rhoden, and seven of her family members.

For Mark Kranz, the career pivot came after drinking scotch, smoking cigars and discussing life, relationships and theology with three buddies post-grad in Boston. For Karen Jennings, it came after she took her brother’s advice about finding passion in her work. For Pernell Jefferson, it came in a desire to stop living paycheck-to-paycheck. The Husker grads don’t know each other, each pursued different degrees and after graduation fanned out across the nation. But they share a commonality: Each works in careers that have little, if anything, to do with their conferred undergrad degrees.

Farm Aid III was the first concert in Memorial Stadium, followed by Garth Brooks three decades later. Fog machine smoke floated onto the circular stage as neon green lights raced up the elaborate set near the north end zone of Memorial Stadium on the mid-August evening; this was clearly no football game. You could hear Garth Brooks before you saw him. As the massive circular drum set began elevating from the stage, Brooks rose upward.

Every couple of weeks or so, Hamilton County child welfare workers pull out a cot between the desks and file cabinets of their downtown Cincinnati office building and put a child to sleep because they can’t find a suitable family member or an available foster home. While this is relatively new for the county, it is not an anomaly.

Shayna Hubers killed more than Ryan Poston three years ago, she destroyed the hopes and dreams of a father amd what could have been Ryan Poston showed up at his dad's house at 12:30 a.m. one day more than three years ago with an overnight bag and laptop in hand. He needed a place to stay because his on-again, off-again girlfriend would not leave his condo. Of course he could stay, Jay Poston told his son, but he needed to end the relationship.

Dear Mrs. DuBose, I just wanted you to know I visited your son today. As you summoned a strength no mother should have to bear, to watch the video that showed University of Cincinnati Police Officer Ray Tensing fire a single fatal gunshot into your oldest son's head, I wanted to let you know that Sam is at peace in the cemetery's Garden of Love section.