News (AP) - Officials seek man's extradition for 1968 slaying

By Corey Williams Associated Press Writer PONTIAC (AP) -- A 67-year-old man who spent time in Michigan and Ohio prisons for the slayings of two women faces extradition from Ohio in the 41-year-old cold case murder of a Detroit-area woman. Nolan Ray George is in an Ohio jail on a first-degree murder warrant in the December 1968 death of Gwendolyn Perry, Oakland County Chief Assistant Prosecutor Paul Walton told The Associated Press last Friday. The 22-year-old Perry was strangled with pantyhose in Pontiac. County authorities believe her death was premeditated. The charge against George carries mandatory life in prison upon conviction. "We have sufficient evidence to warrant probable cause," Walton said. "We have to show he is Nolan George and that the charges in Michigan are a felony to have him extradited." A hearing has to be held before a judge in Ohio. Walton did not know whether George would fight a return to Michigan. He served 12 years in Michigan's prison system after being convicted in the 1968 murder of 23-year-old Francis Brown of Oakland County's Lake Orion, who was strangled with her own underwear. The Detroit Free Press recently reported that, according to court documents, George agreed on the eve of his trial to plead to a lesser charge of second-degree murder in Brown's death. The next day, Pontiac police asked him if he had killed Perry, promising him he wouldn't be prosecuted. Documents show he confessed. The Free Press quoted Oakland County Prosecutor Jessica Cooper as saying investigators found no proof that prosecutors ever offered a formal immunity deal to George in the Perry case or that he signed such a document. She said police on their own wouldn't have had the authority to make such an immunity offer. After serving time for the Brown slaying, George moved to the Cincinnati area. He was convicted of manslaughter in the 1982 death of 22-year-old Cindy Garland Rose. She had been suffocated with her pantyhose and left in a grassy area where she died of exposure. Walton declined to go into detail about Perry's death or other cases in which George may be a suspect. Police in Ohio and Troy, Mich., also are reviewing other similar cold case homicides. Before his arrest on the Oakland County warrant, George had been released June 12 from Ohio's Clermont County Jail after serving time for carrying a concealed weapon and menacing. Jail records did not list a defense attorney for George. It also wasn't immediately clear on the Oakland County warrant whether George has an attorney. Published: Tue, Jul 20, 2010

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