OAKLAND, California -- A police officer testified in the Hans Reiser murder trial here Tuesday that foliage discovered on the tires of his missing wife's van was "consistent" with a leaf found inside a vehicle used by the defendant.
Reiser, the developer of Linux, open-source file systems, is accused of murdering Nina Reiser, his wife who was divorcing him. She was last seen Sept. 3, 2006 after she dropped off the couple's two young children to the house in the Oakland hills where Hans Reiser was living. Her minivan was found abandoned a few miles away, with rotting groceries in it she had purchased on her way to her estranged husband's house. (Jurors got a quick glimmer of the market's time-stamped surveillance tape showing the woman and her children in the store.)
Oakland Police Department officer Shan Johnson testified that the material on the tires of the woman's minivan was "consistent" with a "cherry or a plum tree as well as other plants." In the small Honda Hans Reiser was borrowing from his mother, the authorities found a single leaf "consistent with a cherry tree material," Johnson testified.
The officer was grilled on cross examination by defense attorney William DuBois, who wanted to debunk any connection between what was found on the woman's van and inside the car that the 44-year-old Hans Reiser was driving.
"Did you ever determine the source of that leaf? What cherry tree it came from?"
"No sir."
"Where was the leaf when you first saw it?"
"On the floorboard of the passenger side of the car."
"Were there any leafs inside the minivan?"
"Not to my knowledge. No."
All the while, the defendant gazed at his attorney to his left. Much of his pasty white skin was covered by the same dark dress coat he has donned since his trial began here three months ago. Jurors appeared un-animated.
Hans Reiser faces a life sentence if convicted. He remains jailed without bail. He says his 31-year-old wife left to Russia, where the couple met, and abandoned their two young children.
No body has been discovered. So the case is based largely on circumstantial evidence.
There is no direct evidence linking him to a murder. Forensic evidence includes specks of the woman's blood found inside the husband's residence and on a sleeping bag cover discovered in his vehicle.
Circumstantial evidence includes him trying to elude undercover officers who were following him; Reiser coincidently showing up to pick up his children from school the day after his wife went missing; and among other things, the front seat of his vehicle went missing after his wife vanished.
UPDATE after the jump.
UPDATE
After the lunch break….
The trial veers toward the dumb, the boring and to the embarrassing.
Starting with the boring.
Oakland Police Department officer Eugene Guerrero testifies for hours about the dozen or so officials who tailed Reiser on Sept.18, 2006, two weeks after his wife went missing. The authorities were searching for his vehicle, and they discovered it after tracking him as he walked through the streets of Berkeley.
The officer testified that the defendant exercised so-called "counter-surveillance" measures during his walk to the car.
The officer testified that, during Reiser's 32-minute jaunt, he was "turning around and retracing his steps…looking around in all directions."
When the defendant finally got to his car, Guerrero testified, "He looked around in all four directions before getting in the vehicle and driving away."
Moving to the dumb.
Jurors, who appeared half asleep by now, or perhaps half awake, were treated with a video displayed on a large monitor of Guerrero being filmed as he retraced Hans Reiser's steps through Berkeley. The heavy-set officer, who testified he was pretending to be Hans Reiser, kept peering around suspiciously as he walked.
He was wearing a large, plainclothes shirt and sometimes walked with a slight hunch -- mirroring the infamous Big Foot footage.
And onto the embarrassing.
That is, if you're Henry K. Lee, the San Francisco Chronicle newsman blogging the trial here.
Prosecutor Paul Hora showed a snippet of a Sept. 28, 2006 newscast where the defendant is seen running from a local news crew, with Lee (depicted on screen at left wearing blue shirt) running after the defendant seeking a quote. Lee was clinging to his reporter's notebook and holding on for dear life to his trademarked folder filled with crossword and sudoku puzzles.
Suffice it to say, Bay Area sports fans should be pleased -- as should Bay Area Chronicle readers -- that Lee chose journalism rather than Olympic track and field. And if you're wondering, he didn't get the quote. Here's a link to Lee's blog.
Guerrero resumes the stand Wednesday, to be followed by several other officers for days more.
THREAT LEVEL is providing gavel-to-gavel coverage. Click here for a case recap that includes a dozen sketches from Wired's Norman Quebedeau.
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