Mar 6, 2008

Hans Reiser testifies in murder trial for second day

Bay City News

Computer engineer Hans Reiser said Wednesday that he still cares about his estranged wife Nina, who disappeared in 2006.

However, Reiser, who is in his second day on the witness stand in his trial on charges that he murdered Nina, said, "I didn't feel a passionate, deep love for her,'' and his relationship with her amounted to being a marriage of convenience.

In response to a question posed by his attorney William DuBois, Reiser said he and Nina split up because "she became a citizen and I was dropping clothes on the floor.''

He explained that he was a slob and that Nina was a neatness freak.

Nina Reiser, who was 31 at the time, was last seen alive on Sept. 3, 2006, when she dropped off the couple's two children at the house at 6979 Exeter Drive where Hans Reiser lived with his mother.

Hans and Nina Reiser married in 1999 but she filed for divorce in August 2004 and was awarded legal custody of the children, although he was allowed to have them stay at his house several days a week. Their divorce never was finalized.

The body of Nina Reiser, who was born in Russia and was trained as a physician there, has never been found, despite extensive searches in the Oakland hills and elsewhere. But in October 2006 Hans Reiser was charged with murdering her because prosecutors believe that DNA and blood evidence proves that he killed her.

He has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.

DuBois has said that he thinks Nina Reiser may still be alive and in hiding somewhere, possibly in Russia.

The couple's two children, Rory and Nio, are living in St. Petersburg, Russia, with Nina's mother, Irina Sharanova.