Intellectual Property Law

OAKLAND, California -- Linux guru Hans Reiser, on the witness stand here for the fourth day Monday, denied again that he killed his missing wife. 

"Did you have anything whatsoever to do with her disappearance?" defense attorney William DuBois asked his client.

"No. I did not," the developer of the ReiserFS filesystem testified.

The open source programmer is accused of killing his wife Nina Reiser, who vanished when she dropped off the divorcing couple's two young children to Hans Reiser's residence in the Oakland hills. The authorities said she never left the house alive that Sept. 3, 2006, day.

For his part, the 44-year-old defendant claims his wife, whom he met in Russia while hiring programmers for his Namesys company, abandoned their two kids, a boy now 8 and girl now 6. He claims she left the country and moved back to Russia after he accused her of stealing from him.

"You saw her drive away from the house. Is that right?" his attorney asked under direct examination.

"Yes."

For the first time during the trial's duration, the defendant claimed his 31-year-old wife, whom he married in 1999, abandoned her children because she embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars from his Oakland-based Namesys company.

"Did you conduct yourself in any manner that contributed to her disappearance?" DuBois asked.

"I put a lot of pressure on her," the defendant said, noting that he accused her that Sept. 3 day of bilking him.

DuBois asked the defendant to elaborate. The defendant used terms like embezzlement and forgery.

"I caught her at it. That was pressure," he said. "I told her embezzlement was a serious crime." He added: "We had a contentious divorce.

Hans Reiser, 44, faces a maximum life sentence if convicted. He remains jailed without bail.

For the first time since the Nov. 6, 2007, opening statements, the defendant was wearing a blue, collared dress shirt. He had been wearing a similar white shirt through the trial. The blue sports coat and light pants appeared to be the same outfit.

Later the evening of Sept. 3, 2006,Resier put the two kids to bed after his estranged wife left, he testified. "We sang the Bathtub Blues."

The 12 jurors and two remaining alternates took some notes but sat slumped in their swivel chairs. Often, they did not look at the defendant.

Alameda County Superior Court Judge Larry Goodman looked tan and relaxed. Trial was recessed last week for the judge's vacation.

At one point, it seemed as if the defendant was about to begin pining for his wife. When testifying he watched her walk out the house on Sept. 3, 2006, he said "she looked beautiful."

"I had a mix of emotions," he added.

After a long pause, DuBois asked: "What were you thinking about at that moment in time?"

Perhaps it wasn't pining after all.

"I was thinking," the defendant answered, "I wanted to go downstairs and play with the kids."

Sketches by Norman Quebedeau/Wired.com.

See Also:

• Live Blog: Hans Reiser Denies Murdering His Wife
• Defense Planting Seeds of Doubt; Hans Reiser Likely to Testify ...
• Hans Reiser Taking Witness Stand Now; Did You Kill Your Wife?
• Hans Reiser Evading Police Because He Was Upset, Feared Arrest ...
• Hans Reiser Murder Trial: The Vilification Defense Begins -- UPDATE II
• Hans Reiser Murder Trial: Indigent, Technospeak and Evading Detection
• Hans Reiser Murder Trial: The Ego, the Filesystem and No Mention ...
• Hans Reiser to Testify; Judge Says Sufficient Evidence to 'Sustain ...