Michael George Case: Opening Arguments This article describes opening argument in the trial of former retailer and prominent convention organizer Michael George, accused of the murder of his then-wife Barbara in his comic book store in Michigan in July 1990. Prosecutors painted a picture of a man who wanted to escape the marriage and who stood to profit from insurance both on his late wife and theft insurance for books claimed to have been stolen in a robbery attempt pushed as the cause of the slaying. Defense attorneys focused on the lack of physical evidence placing George in the comic shop at the time of the killing. The case has become a high-profile one for central Michigan due to the cold-case nature of it coming to trial, the local personalities involved on both legal teams, as well as the lurid nature of the crime and the sensational aspects of evidence to be entered as to George's potential motives.
