
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, June 19, 1990                   TAG: 9006190246
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-5   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: By Associated Press
DATELINE: WOODBRIDGE                                LENGTH: Short

CONVICTED KILLER CHARGED AGAIN IN SLAYING OF TEEN

A man charged with murdering a 15-year-old boy who had gone trail bike-riding was convicted in 1984 of involuntary manslaughter involving the death of another youth in nearly the same location.

Michael Carl George, 32, of Stafford County, was arrested late Sunday in the slaying of Alexander Eugene Sztanko of Manassas, who was reported missing when he failed to return from riding his trail bike, police said.

George had been arrested earlier Sunday for trespassing near where Sztanko's body was found, according to Sgt. Barry Barnard of Prince William County police.

Barnard would not comment on a possible motive. George was arraigned Monday and was being held without bond at the Prince William-Manassas Regional Adult Detention Center.

The dead youth's mother, Gail Sztanko, said her son left to join friends who had gone trail riding at about 2 p.m. Saturday. But the boy never met his friends. Police found Sztanko's body at about 2 p.m. Sunday in a wooded area.

George, a computer operator, served two years of a five-year sentence for involuntary manslaughter in the 1979 disappearance of 9-year-old Larry Perry of Dumfries, authorities said.

In that case, George told police he had shot the boy in a target-shooting accident, said Prince William County Sheriff Wilson Garrison. George said he panicked and buried the body in a ravine near where Sztanko's body was found, according to Wilson. However, Perry's body was not found.

by CNB