Now it was up to the jury. After three weeks of competing theories, timelines and testimony, they had to sort it all out.

Renee Johnson: You know, all the attorneys have introduced themselves and you have the defendant there. And I was like, "Oh my gosh. I can't believe I’m sitting here!”

Sandra Layne: I have to say that this was the best, most exciting thing I would never want to do again.

Twelve strangers had gotten jury summonses and now they were sitting together in judgment on another person accused of something a long time ago.

The two sides made their closing arguments.

The prosecution first.

Kaplan: The only one in this world who didn't want her in this world anymore is the defendant. He's the one with the financial motives. He's the one with the romantic motives. He's the one who wants to start his new family without her.

Then the defense.

Carl Marlinga: It's the prosecution's obligation to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he was at the store. I suggest and argue to you that that will be an impossible burden. You cannot in good faith come back with a guilty verdict knowing that there's that reasonable doubt.

Michael George’s fate was in the hands of the jury.

Madette: 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 rollercoaster.

Nine of the jurors took us inside their deliberations, finally able to talk about the case. They got it late on a Friday afternoon and remembered their discussion going all over the place at first.

Garry: It probably wasn't within, maybe even, I want to say maybe 20 minutes, we said, “OK. Let's take a vote right now, see where we stand and kind of go from there."

Garry Kuzinkoski had been chosen foreperson.

Dennis Murphy, Dateline NBC: Twelve people, what was your count?

Garry: Seven and five. Seven guilty, five not guilty.

Murphy: So you're a pretty divided group?

Garry: Yes, it was.

Kay: I was at not guilty, because I just didn't think, at that moment, we had enough evidence.

What they agreed on right away was the prosecution's portrayal of Michael George as a womanizing louse.

Crissie Nelson: On the marriage, there was -- obviously he was having an affair.

Dennis Murphy: So, it was messy right from the start? You knew that?

Crissie Nelson: Yeah. But they asked us that during the jury selection, if that would be some bias against the case. And so you kind of had to let that go. But there were so many lies and deceit that you couldn't help but to keep that in your thoughts.

Mike Ellis: I got the idea that he was just a liar beyond all comprehension. You know, he couldn't be trusted.

Meilute Repsha: He was very deceptive.

Madette: He was someone, to me, who had a hidden agenda.

Dennis Murphy: Almost like a secret life that Barbara didn't know about?

Chrissie: Yes.

Murphy: And yet you had to remember that this wasn't a case about adultery.

Chrissie: Correct.

Murphy: It was a case about murder.

Chrissie: Correct

Murphy: And whatever you felt about him...

Chrissie: Exactly.

Murphy: … may not connect the dots to get to murder.

Chrissie: Correct. And that's just what we did.

Kay: Just because we don't maybe approve of the way he lived his life doesn't make him a killer. I absolutely agree with that.

Another point the jurors agreed on was a key defense theme: they felt the initial police work on the case came up short: from phone calls not traced, to gunshot residue tests not administered, to some leads never followed.

Mr. Marlinga: And did you ever do a canvass of the neighborhood to see if there were any neighbors or anybody else in the area who might have seen him between the hours roughly of 5 o'clock and 7 o'clock?

Donald Steckman: No, sir.

Chris Capano: As far as July of 1990, the police work was very very unsatisfying to us.

Dennis Murphy: Do you guys agree with Chris on that?

Jurors: Absolutely.

Garry: ...Township should be just totally ashamed of...

Chris: They should totally just be ashamed...

Garry: Of the work they did.

Whatever happened inside that comic book shop, the jurors thought it was probably not a robbery gone wrong. Too much easy money left untouched.

Chrissie Nelson: She had money in her pockets. 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.

Meilute: You would think that anyone that was casing the joint would probably come to the front of the store...

Madette: ...not the back...

Meilute: To rob that first, rather than rummaging through a number of boxes in the back.

And certainly no jurors thought someone unknown had been out to target Barb.

Chrissie: Everyone that testified said she was a wonderful woman. Everybody said she was likeable and bubbly and smiling all the time...

Kay: She didn't have enemies that would be likely to want to hurt her.

And so they looked at the prosecutor's argument that the husband, Michael George, had the motive to murder his wife.

There was no question about the defendant and girlfriends.

Kay: He wanted to divorce her to get rid of her. And she was not willing to do that. She was trying to make the marriage work.

This juror said he could picture Michael George slipping into the back door of the shop about 5:30 just as the prosecution had suggested.

Mike Ellis: So I’m thinking that he confronted her because he didn't want to be with her and got nervous, got mad.

And some jurors debating premeditation were persuaded that the $130,000 insurance payoff on Barb's death would have given the husband incentive.

Renee Johnson: Insurance money, sure. I mean, you know, there were witnesses after that that said that he was talking about what kind of car he should buy. Or should he open another comic book store.

The testimony about Michael George’s demeanor after the murder -- wearing the dark shades, the creepy come-ons to the female customer -- had registered in the circumstantial composite the prosecution had drawn…

Meilute: It's just so inappropriate.

But there was one story in particular that had stuck with jurors, the one about what George had said to the police officers just after arriving at the scene after 8 p.m. that night.

Garry: She must have fallen and hit her head in the back room, and the back room is what he specifies.

Chrissie Nelson: And her head...

Mike Ellis: Who would have known that she was in the back room?

Renee Johnson: Right.

Mike Ellis: And who would have known she hurt her head?

But the jurors would not reach a consensus that Friday afternoon. Some of them said they had doubts about whether the prosecution had made its case.

Kay Daniels: I was not convinced he was guilty when we went into the jury room ... 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.”

Dennis Murphy: The burden's on the state

Kay: The burden's totally on the state.

The jury called it quits for the weekend. They'd resume deliberations Monday morning.

Kay: 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.

Every one of them felt the weight that had been placed on their collective shoulders.

Chrissie: You know, you're sitting here all day and you're listening to all these testimonies. You're seeing autopsy photos and then you try to go back home to your regular life, you know, and it's hard...

Monday morning, March 17, 2008. The jurors were back and they read the transcript of George’s police interview in Pennsylvania. They pieced together a timeline. When had the defendant left the comic book shop? Had his mother told the truth, that he was in her house napping when the murder occurred, or, did they believe Mike Renaud, the comic book collector's account of talking to Michael George on the phone inside his store within minutes of the homicide?

Two jurors had been on the fence all day. It was getting late but jurors say no one was being pressured.

Mike Ellis: And that's when we took the vote. And we had a unanimous decision at that point.

The jury had reached a verdict.

And now they had to walk back into court and hear it read.

Judge: "Please be seated. Thank you."

Madette Bui: My heart was racing like it's never raced. And my heart was pounding. My hands were sweating.

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