By Jameson Cook
THE Macomb (Mich.) Daily
MOUNT CLEMENS, Mich.
May 09, 2008 11:22 pm
—
During the seconds jurors waited in the courtroom for their foreman to announce they had convicted Windber businessman Michael George of first-degree murder, juror Madette was tense.
“My heart was racing like it’s never raced,” Madette, a nurse, said. “And my heart was pounding. My hands were sweating. And I had no doubt that the verdict we came to was the correct one.
“Unless you sat on this jury, no one would really understand what it was like to have the power to influence someone’s life. To be able to send someone to jail. That was just such an emotional roller-coaster.”
Madette and several others on the Macomb County Circuit Court jury told a reporter from “Dateline NBC” they’re certain of their March 18 decision to find George guilty of first-degree murder in the July 13, 1990, shooting death of Barbara George, his wife and mother of his two children, in the comic book store they owned in Clinton Township.
The episode aired Friday night.
Reporter Dennis Murphy interviewed nine of the 12 jurors in the same jury box in the same courtroom in Mount Clemens where only hours before they delivered their verdict and then heard George wail about his fate at the defense table.
A transcript of the group interview was obtained by The Macomb Daily. Only the jurors’ first names are used.
Among those interviewed for the “Dateline” segment were two people who lived near Michael George in Windber, including a pastor.
In addition to the case details, “The goal was to show what his life was like for 17 years in Pennsylvania,” NBC producer Fred Rothenberg said. “People there paint a different picture of him.”
George was described as a family man “devoted to his wife and kids” in Windber, Rothenberg said. He was a youth baseball coach and donated comic books to the local library.
The case was prosecuted by Macomb’s Cold Case Unit, headed by assistant Macomb prosecutor Steven Kaplan.
The jury deliberated about 2 1/2 hours on Friday, March 14, and returned from the weekend Monday, March 17, to mull about seven more hours before announcing its decision at 5:20 p.m.
The jurors’ faith in their verdict conflicts with George’s defense attorneys Carl Marlinga’s and Joseph Kosmala’s reluctance to accept it. They are seeking a directed verdict, which is scheduled to be argued Thursday in front of Judge James Biernat in Macomb Circuit Court. If that is rejected, they will ask Biernat for a new trial.
Jurors on the first day of deliberations were split: Seven favored guilty and five favored acquittal.
“I went home for the weekend thinking it’s at least going to be a hung jury because I don’t think I can ever be convinced,” said juror Kay, a substitute teacher.
George was portrayed as a “womanizing louse,” as reporter Murphy said, throughout the trial. He was cheating on his wife and had cheated before, made passes at women and lied about comic books being stolen from his store.
But that didn’t mean he was a murderer.
“Just because we don’t maybe approve of the way he lived his life doesn’t make him a killer,” Kay said. “He may, you know, have all these character flaws but that does not mean he did it. You have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt. You just can’t think, ‘Oh, he probably did it.’ ”
But after putting the pieces of evidence together, jurors decided just that.
However, jurors weren’t pleased with the initial investigation by Clinton Township police.
“As far as July of 1990, the police work was very, very unsatisfying to us,” said Chris, an automotive factory worker.
The “township should be just totally ashamed of” the investigation, Chris said.
Defense attorneys Marlinga and Kosmala during the trial attacked the police work, saying officers didn’t pursue other suspicious characters, didn’t collect enough evidence at the murder scene and didn’t check George’s hands for gunpowder residue.
But after township police revived the probe in late 2006 and arrested George in August, police and prosecutors believed they had a strong, albeit highly circumstantial, case.
George had multiple, basic motives, jurors agreed. Unhappy in his marriage, he was having an affair with Renee Kotula, with whom he would move in within two months of his wife’s death. They married in 1992, and soon moved to Windber to live near her family.
“He wanted to divorce her to get rid of her,” Kay said. “She was not willing to do that. She was trying to make the marriage work.”
Juror Mike, a lineman for a power company and business owner, added, “So I’m thinking that he confronted her because he didn’t wanna be with her and got nervous, got mad.”
George collected $130,000 in life insurance because of his 32-year-old wife’s death and nearly $13,000 in theft insurance due to the purported robbery. The money added incentive.
“Insurance money, sure,” said juror Renee, a secretary. “I mean, you know, there were witnesses after that said he was talking about what kind of car he should buy, or should he open another comic book store.”
The defense argued Barbara George was shot during a robbery, but jurors didn’t buy it.
Barbara was shot once in the back of the head, as attorneys theorized she may have been bending over. But expensive jewelry she was wearing and $400 in cash in her pockets were untouched.
“She had money in her pockets,” said juror Christine, a dental hygienist.
“There was money in the register. Behind the register there was a showcase that had expensive comic books back there. That wasn’t bashed in and taken.”
Also, jurors figured a robber would enter through the front door, and evidence showed the killer entered through the back, they said.
“You would think that anyone that was casing the joint would probably come to the front of the store to rob that first, rather than rummaging through a number of boxes in the back,” juror Meilute, a psychiatric nurse, said.
Excluding robbery also excluded the other suspects who the defense claimed the police and prosecution failed to probe.
And Barbara George didn’t appear to have any enemies, based on many witnesses’ testimony.
“Everyone that testified said she was a wonderful woman,” Christine said. “Everybody said she was likable and bubbly and smiling all the time.”
Jurors struggled most with the time line. During deliberations, they asked to have testimony regarding the timing read back to them.
George claimed that at the time of the slaying, shortly after 6 p.m., he was taking a nap on the couch of his mother’s home in Hazel Park at the time of the slaying. The memory of his mother, Janet, however, was fuzzy on the witness stand.
Other evidence placed him at the store, and George didn’t have anything to refute it and didn’t take the stand to defend himself.
His credibility, as far as jurors were concerned, was shot.
“I got the idea that he was just a liar beyond all comprehension,” Mike said. “He couldn’t be trusted.”
“He was very deceptive,” Meilute added.
The foreman, Garry, an electrical engineer, said his suspicions were raised by George telling police the night of his wife’s death – even before he knew she was dead – that his wife probably fell and hit her head in the back room.
“She must have fallen and hit her head in the back room, and the back is what he specifies,” Garry said.
Mike said, “Who would have known that she was in the back room? Who would have known she hurt her head?”
Jurors agreed the key witness in the case was Mike Renaud, who testified that he called the store, Comic World, about 5:30 p.m., and Michael answered.
“He should not have been there when Mike Renaud called,” Kay said.
Juror Sandra, an elementary school worker, agreed that but for Renaud’s testimony, “I would still be in that (jury) room.”
Renaud’s statement – for an unknown reason – never was received in 1990 by Donald Steckman, the officer in charge of the case.
Another important witness who was not mentioned in the televised jury interview was Barbee Hancock-Kalbfleisch, whose testimony corroborated Renaud’s.
A defense witness, she said on the stand she arrived at the store about 5:30 p.m., found the door locked and discovered Barbara George had left for a few minutes to order food for the 30th surprise birthday party she was planning for her husband.
Assistant prosecutor Kaplan told jurors that provided George the opportunity to enter the store through the back and “lie in wait.”
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