committing this crime. i prosecuted killers, defended killers, this man is not a killer. i don t know why god has put us through this. i do believe he loves us. six weeks after the verdict, michael george did finally speak out, but as a convicted murderer at his pro forma sentencing hearing. the catastrophe of putting people away that are innocent has not started with me and will not end with me. before this, i ve never been accused of any crime, no domestic violence. i have no police record, no problem with drinking or drugs. i can only hope and pray that the lives that are destroyed by people being overzealous in the police community will find mercy in god above. barb s brother joe expected nothing and said he got it. once again, no apology. he thinks he s better than everybody else, and he thought he was going to get away with it. and as bausch s family saw it, since 1990 he did get away with murder until eric smith s
that time and, therefore, could not be the killer. but according to prosecutors, michael george wasn t napping on the couch at all. they contended he d returned to comics world and sneaked into the storage room with a gun when barb left to order pizza for his birthday party and about what time was that? between 5:00 and 5:30. that s the timeframe when this witness, a friend of bausch s, came to the store. it was locked, and she had to wait for barb to return from the pizza place. if she was not in the store at 5:30, she couldn t have answered the phone. if someone answered the phone, it would have to be someone other than her. correct. prosecutors questioned the one witness who could identify who answered the phone. michael renaud. yes, sir. mike renaud. in 1990 a decade before his disabling accident, renaud was married, had a young daughter, and was holding down two jobs. were you also attending school? yes.
he placed the call. to this day the former detective does not know how the note went astray but was unaware of the comic book collector s story talking to the husband in the shop. how did you not see it? i never saw it. if we would have seen it we would not be sitting here today. you would have gone for an arrest and indictment. no doubt about it. now the investigative leads pointed just one way, towards the husband. it it was like a funnel effect. we started off looking at a lot of things and a lot of people and it narrowed down like a funnel. it was time for the cold case detectives to take a road trip to pennsylvania. a trip across miles and time. they were going to make a surprise visit to michael george at comics world. the one time husband finally collectible. coming up. i think barb was at the wrong
please be seated. please be seated. barb s sister and two brothers seemed to share a gasp of relief. he took away my oldest sister. she didn t get to see me get married. she didn t get to see my son being born. she ll never get to see him do anything. i mean, he took a part of me away. across the room the convicted man s younger daughter, one of barb s two children, collapsed into her stepmother s arms, renee. michael george would go on weeping for a full two minutes. i didn t do this! but lieutenant craig keith, the cold case detective who rediscovered the crucial evidence, was unmoved by george s tears. mike showed no emotion back in 1990, and now he cries, and my impression of that is mike is crying for himself. it was devastating. it was just devastating.
defendant at the scene. he s the only one that alone can destroy the defendant s alibi. without him we don t even issue a warrant. the defense lawyers knew their client s freedom depended both on them challenging renaud s story and reinforcing the defendant s alibi. it s a win/win for the prosecutions side. what we hoped to direct the jury to focus on was specifically that alibi. the defendant s 1990 story was that he d left his clinton township shop some time after 4:00 p.m. to go to his mother s house. she lived in hazel park about a half hour away. it s michael george s alibi that he was at his mother s house from 4:30 to 7:30. a little after he arrived, his mother said she took her grandchildren to the park and he was sleeping on the coach when they got back sometime after 6:00. barb was murdered a little after 6:00. if michael george s account is true, he was at his mother s at