Photo by Erin Sanchez Michael George is accused of killing his wife in 1990 in the Clinton Township comic book store they owned. He was bound over to Circuit Court Oct. 15.

By Heidi Roman
C & G Staff Writer

CLINTON TOWNSHIP — Though 41-B District Judge Linda Davis said it’s not an ironclad case by any means, Michael Ralph George will stand trial for the 1990 murder of his wife, Barbara George, in the Clinton Township comic book store they owned.

The prosecution’s case is built mostly on circumstantial evidence, but was enough to prove probable cause, Davis said. George was bound over to Circuit Court Oct. 15 on charges of first- and second-degree murder, felony firearm and insurance fraud.

George, 47, was arrested in August after Clinton Township detectives reopened the case and spent months interviewing witnesses. Investigators believe it was George who fatally shot his wife execution-style on July 13, 1990. Barbara George was planning a surprise party for her husband at the store when it happened. Investigators said Michael George made it look like a robbery, reporting valuable comic books missing.

Macomb County Assistant Prosecutor Steve Kaplan called 18 witnesses in George’s preliminary exam to establish his motive and a timeframe of events that day. One woman who used to frequent the comic book store testified that George had told her he found his wife to be unattractive, and wanted to move to Florida with his two daughters. The witness also testified that George handed her a note about six weeks after Barbara George’s murder to tell her she looked pretty.

George’s defense attorney, Carl Marlinga, said that though there may have been flirting or infidelity, George would not have resorted to murder as a way out of his marriage.

“It’s a huge jump to go from infidelity to murder,” Marlinga said, adding that evidence in this case is thin — maybe too thin, he believes.

One key in the case will be where Michael George was between about 4:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. that day, the time during which Barbara George was killed. The murder occurred in a very narrow timeframe, Kaplan said, likely around 6:05 p.m. The question is whether or not George was in the store around that time.

George’s mother, Janet George, testified that her son came to her house after 4 p.m. that night to drop off his two daughters.

“He said he was tired and I told him to lay down and take a nap,” she said. She took both girls to a park down the street to give him some quiet, she testified. She isn’t certain what time it was when the three headed back to her house, but a neighbor testified that she drove by the park between 5:45 p.m. and 6 p.m. and saw them. The neighbor also recalled seeing a white minivan, which she knew to be Michael George’s, parked out front, though she didn’t actually see him.

Janet George said her son was still sleeping on the couch when she came back from the park. George’s daughter, who was 4 1/2 years old at the time, also said that she remembers her father sleeping on the couch.

But one witness, a comic book collector, said he called the store during that time and George answered the phone. The witness was a regular customer at the store. He couldn’t pinpoint the exact time he called, but testified that it was sometime between 5:15 p.m. and 5:45 p.m. that night. The conversation was brief, the witness said.

Kaplan said that if George was in fact at the store during the time, it would be “damning evidence.”

“It provides him with opportunity,” Kaplan said. “He has opportunity, he has means, he has motive.”

Davis said the time element is enough to bind George over to Circuit Court, and said some confusion over the exact times is to be expected.

“This is a 17-year-old case,” Davis said. “Time is going to fluctuate.”

Since the murder, Michael George has been living in Pennsylvania, where he owns a comic book store with the woman he married two years after his late wife’s death.

George’s pretrial is scheduled for Oct. 29 in Circuit Court. He is being held without bond, despite Marlinga’s request that George be able to post bond and remain monitored by a global positioning system tether.

“This family has been waiting 17 years for an answer to this,” Davis said. “I am not going to risk that he won’t be here for trial.”

You can reach Staff Writer Heidi Roman at hroman@candgnews.com or at (586) 218-5006.