Murder Suspect Familiar With Jail -- Man Charged In Slaying Of Redmond Woman Has Long Criminal Record

Car theft, forgery, assault, burglary - Mercer Island police know George Russell well. They call him a sneak thief.

They never thought anyone would call him a killer.

George Waterfield Russell, 32, was charged with first-degree murder yesterday in the death of 27-year-old Mary Ann Pohlreich of Redmond.

Russell also remains a suspect in the death of Andrea Levine. Police also are interested in him in connection with the death of Carol Marie Beethe, but they're not calling him a suspect in that case. All three women were beaten to death last summer.

Bellevue police had circumstantial evidence linking Russell to Pohlreich's death, but forensic lab tests gave prosecutors the critical last link they needed to charge the longtime Mercer Island resident with murder.

Police believe Russell raped Pohlreich, and tests showed that fluid found in the victim's body matches Russell's blood type. In addition, tests showed that blood found in a truck Russell borrowed the night of the murder matches Pohlreich's blood type.

Russell is in the King County Jail serving time on unrelated charges; he was to be released today. Prosecutors have asked to have him held on $500,000 bail.

Police believe Russell ran into Pohlreich, an acquaintance, at an Overlake dance bar called Papagayo's on June 22. According to court documents, an off-duty Bellevue police officer working at the bar that night saw Russell, whom he knew, leave the bar around 11 p.m. with a blond woman.

On June 23, Pohlreich's nude body was discovered about a mile away next to a restaurant trash bin.

Medical examiners believe Pohlreich was killed by blows to the head with a blunt object and lacerations to the liver sometime in the early-morning hours of June 23. There was also evidence of strangulation and rape.

Police believe Pohlreich left Papagayo's with Russell, and when she rejected his sexual advances she was raped and murdered.

Russell had an extensive record of petty crimes dating to his teen-age years. Court records show he has been convicted of third-degree theft, taking a motor vehicle without permission, simple assault, vehicle prowling, possession of marijuana and second-degree burglary, convictions that date to 1977 when he was 19.

Russell ``was regarded more as a character'' than a dangerous criminal by Mercer Island police, said Police Chief Jan Deveney, who called Russell a ``sneak thief.''

Murder would seem like ``an awfully big step for George to take,'' said Mercer Island Prosecutor Wayne Stuart. ``It's difficult to understand a transition from something petty to something like three murders.''

In recent years, when police picked him up, they often found him armed with a knife - ``anything from a kitchen knife to an old bayonet,'' said Mercer Island police Sgt. Jim Myers.

Police never heard of Russell using the knife to hurt someone, but ``we had information he had brandished a knife'' on one occasion, Myers said.

People who knew him found Russell to be articulate and friendly. ``He was a good talker,'' Myers said. ``He was, I suppose, for lack of a better word, charming.''

Russell was the only prisoner who ever broke out of the city's temporary holding facility, Deveney said. Seven years ago, when the jail was in an old building, Russell was being held for car prowling. Russell kicked a window out, crawled through and escaped.

Stuart said he always asked judges to give Russell maximum jail time. Aside from the one escape, Russsell was a model prisoner who seemed to do very well in a controlled environment, Stuart said.

People who know him describe Russell as having a quick, intelligent mind.

``He probably could have been anything he wanted to be,'' Myers said. ``He was very knowledgable about a lot of different subjects.'' Often, when police arrested him, ``he'd have a backpack with books on him.''

But he didn't do well in school. Russell was a student at Mercer Island High School in the mid-1970s but never graduated, officials there said. He had a poor attendance record, failed many of his classes and dropped out of school when he was a senior.

Officers didn't fear him, Deveney said. ``There are people like that - they don't assault police officers; they make you chase them.''

But Deveney never thought Russell was capable of killing.

``It's hard to believe he could be that dangerous,'' the chief said.

Prosecutors are continuing to review a second count of murder against Russell for the death of Andrea Levine, 24, who was found beaten to death by a blunt object in her Kingsgate apartment.

King County police have evidence showing Russell knew Levine, that he stopped by her apartment unannounced several times before her murder, that he was staying in a hotel with friends near her house the night of the murder Aug. 30, and that he disappeared from the hotel around the time Levine was murdered. What police don't yet have is results from lab tests which will show if Russell's body fluids and hair type matches the type found on Levine's body.

Russell also remains ``a person of interest'' in the beating death of bartender Carol Marie Beethe, 35, who was found dead Aug. 9 in the bedroom of her Bellevue house. Lab tests are also being used in that case, and there are a number of suspects, said Lt. Ed Mott.

Police say they have downplayed a link between the three deaths because they fear it would hurt chances of a conviction if evidence didn't prove conclusively there was a connection.