OAKLAND, California -- The trial of People v. Hans Reiser picked up here Thursday where it left off the day before: The murder defendant's attorney was sparring with the mother of the defendant's missing wife.
"Would you like me today to repeat my responses for a third time?" testified witness Irina Sharanova, the mother of Nina Reiser, who the defendant is accused of killing.
"I don't know what you're putting into this question?" Sharanova at one time replied to defense attorney William DuBois.
Sharanova, 59, was flown here by prosecutors from Russia, where she lives and where she reared Nina Reiser. Her daughter vanished Sept. 3, 2006, when she dropped off her and Hans' two young children to the Oakland hills house where the popular Linux programmer lived.
The authorities claim Nina Reiser, who was divorcing her husband, never left the house alive. The defendant, who produces open source file systems from his Oakland-based Namesys company, claims the woman, at age 31, abandoned their two young children and moved back to Russia, where the couple met in 1998.
"Is that a nyet?" DuBois retorted at one point to the mother.
Sharanova's testimony is being translated by a Russian-language interpreter.
DuBois was grilling Sharanova about her daughter advertising herself for marriage in a "European Connections" magazine.
"Was there something that happened in Nina's life that made her reach out to men in other countries?" DuBois asked.
"Love," the woman replied.
DuBois was about to ask another question when prosecutor Paul Hora noticed that the interpreter had said one more word.
The interpreter added: "Unfortunately."
DuBois continued to grill the mother about her daughter becoming a so-called mail-order bride. And the dialogue verged on the absurd.
"Why did Nina apply to marriage agencies in 1998?"
"Every girl dreams about a prince. Maybe that's why?"
"What I mean is why would she use a marriage agency to find a prince?"
"It's one of the ways for finding a prince," Sharanova replied.
DuBois continued: "Princes always look greener on the other side of the ocean?"
"They're pretty green in Europe as well," Sharanova said.
Sharanova looked like she was holding her breath to fight back tears. The tactic did not always work. Contempt was written in her Russian intonations as she spoke to DuBois
At one point, the judge became annoyed when DuBois began asking Sharanova whether her daughter was attractive enough to become a model.
Alameda County Superior Court Judge Larry Goodman said the question was irrelevant.
All the while, the temperament of jurors changed visibly. On Wednesday, they sat upright and jotted notes when Sharanova was being examined by Hora. At the time, she called her son in law a "killer."
On Thursday, jurors sat slumped. Several jurors gazed at each other, wearing the facial expressions of astonishment.
Sharanova, her third day on the stand, does not appear to have looked at the defendant, who remains jailed without bail. The defendant, who often takes notes and reads court documents at the defense table, gazes at his mother in law awkwardly.
DuBois had asked her why her daughter chose Hans Reiser to marry in 1999.
"She fell in love with Hans."
Testimony is breaking for lunch. Circle back. Sharanova resumes the stand.
Sharanova is the last of the prosecution's 50-plus witness. Hora could rest his case in chief later Thursday.
The defense case is next. Hans Reiser's father, Ramon, is first up. He's waiting outside the courtroom and might take the stand Thursday.
THREAT LEVEL is providing gavel-to-gavel coverage.
Courtroom sketch by Norman Quebedeau.
See Also:
