Betrayal

A Computer Genius, His Russian Bride, The KGB And The Ultimate Betrayal

(CBS)  His lawyers feel that Hans is being prosecuted for his quirky personality, and not the evidence. "The truth is that the prosecution doesn't have evidence sufficient to convict this man and they’ve thrown him in jail and charged him with murder," DuBois says.

Hans insists he's innocent and decides to take his story directly to the jury, but what will they make of him?

After more than 50 witnesses and five months of testimony, this trial really came down to just one witness: Hans, who with a grin on his face, seemed more than eager to tell his side of the story.

DuBois realized that having Hans take the stand was a huge risk, but a risk Hans insisted he should take.

But the first impression he made on the jury was a good one. "He was quirky and he was weird but he wasn’t that weird," one of the jurors noted.

Hans was composed on the stand. In a matter-of-fact, unemotional tone of voice, he told jurors that on the day Nina vanished he saw her walk out the front door of his house, get in her minivan and drive away.

"It was the first time that he ever told anyone in law enforcement what had happened to Nina that day. The first I had ever heard of it, too," remembers prosecutor Paul Hora, who watched and worried. "As a prosecutor, when a defendant takes a witness stand in a murder trial it's a critical witness because if the jurors like him and believe him, he's goin' home."

And initially, the jurors did sympathize with Hans. But then Hora got his turn to question Hans. He got right to the point: why, Hora wanted to know, had Hans removed the front passenger seat from his car?

"He said he removed the passenger seat in order to make a Honda CRX a more comfortable place to sleep," Hora remembers.

Hora pressed him about where had he put the car seat. Hans said a dumpster but that he didn’t quite remember where. "His explanations were ridiculous," Hora says. "I mean, they were lies. A Honda CRX is an awfully small car that wouldn’t be comfortable no matter you did to sleep in it."

All told, Hans remained on the stand for 11 days, until there seemed to be nothing more for anyone to say. After closing arguments, the case went to the jury.

For three days, the jury deliberated before reaching a verdict: guilty of murder in the first degree.

The verdict hit DuBois hard. "I was numb by the case and the trial and the tribulations that we went through to get to that spot," he remembers.

DuBois still feels that the jury was prevented from hearing the truth about Sean Sturgeon. Sturgeon's name was often mentioned at the trial, but the man who confessed to killing "eight and a half" people was never called to the stand. Perhaps more importantly, his bizarre confession was never heard by the jury.

"We tried to point out during the trial that, as a matter of fact, he was a sadomasochist and had a lot of violent tendencies," DuBois says. "There’s even more that we can't talk about because there's a gag order, which is still in effect."

That gag order was issued by Judge Larry Goodman, who ruled the jury could not hear about Sean's murderous admissions. In fact, because investigators could find no evidence, Sean was never charged with the eight murders he confessed to. And as for Anthony Zografos, he was cleared by police.

These days, when Nina's friends and relatives think about Nina they focus on the good times. "What will you tell the kids as they get older, what will you tell them about her?" Maher asks.

"That they should be proud that they had a mom like that and I’m proud that I had her as my friend," Ellen says.

Back in St. Petersburg, Nina's mother can’t help but remember Nina every time she looks at Rory and Nio. And she thinks back to what Nina would often say: unhappiness is temporary, and when things are bad they will always get better.

[colonel_panik]

Hans Reiser led police to Nina's body on July 7, 2008.
See the wikipedia entry
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Reiser#Recovery_of_Nina.27s_body_and_sentencing

pretty conclusive. Sean was apparently a "red sturgeon"

[babooph]

Sounds like she may be dead,he may have killed her ,but maybe not.......

[graigrsmith]

"What nailed it for me was the testimony of the son. He drew a picture of his father possibly carrying his dead mother down the stairs. That explains the mother''''s blood on the beam."

i don''t remember ever seeing any news about that. Well if that''s true he probably did do it.

[graigrsmith]

you know. i don''t know how they could actually convict him. they really had no evidence. other than the fact that he was weird and strange and did weird and strange things.

nothing conclusively points out a definitive answer on weather or not he killed her. if i was a juror i would have to put myself in his shoes and look for actual evidence. i could imagine how much it must suck to be imprisoned for something you didn''t do. that''s why there has to be definitive evidence, which i don''t believe they had any of that. just feelings and wishy washy weirdness is all they used to convict him.

[apprxam]

CBS, please don''t turn into ABC NEWS by feeding us commercials on blogs. 48Hours suck anyway.

[patriot12436]

Even if she was a ***, the worst woman in the world, she was a person and had a right to live. Do you think because she came from Russia she wasn''t human ?

[patriot12436]

nopatriot
Are you on drugs or just cannot speak english fluently. Your posts are only babble. I can''t see what point you are trying to make.

[Latrocinor]

But Hans ignored his father''s advice and married Nina in 1999 when she was five months pregnant.
.. .. ..
That say''s it all.

[roscoezzz]

Hans should never have taken the witness stand. He should''ve kept his mouth shut. I read the "statement" after the show, where the police will offer him a lesser charge if he leads them to the body. He''ll take it I''m sure.
What nailed it for me was the testimony of the son. He drew a picture of his father possibly carrying his dead mother down the stairs. That explains the mother''s blood on the beam. Plus, that phone call to his mother was pretty cold and he talked about his ex-wife in a past tense sort-of-way.
It''s too bad. This woman surrounded herself with weird men. Her lover, who claimed he had killed 8 women, I think that was a made up story to throw suspicion away from Hans.

[nanging3]

We can make a difference, lets%u2019 tell the ArchBishop that muzzling %u201CFather%u201D
Pfleger for the 100th time, just won%u2019t cut it. We want him removed, he is a
disgrace to the Catholic church and everything Holy%u2026
Petition site%u2026please pass it on%u2026

www.thepetitionsite.com/1/removable-of
-father-michael-pfleger

[nopatriot]

He really apologized to me again and again.So I did not suit him but I wonder why I had to have court process with my own money to take back my right title "No arrested record". I believe it is not happened in japan, Japanese police apology and will change my status if they did wrong to me, but Oakland police did not charge me but no apology. I want to make a big deal this more than suit police station to get small amount of money. I did not get any money from any law suit yet, because I am not doing this for money but for right human rights.
So I am discussing this issue in japan also inter nationally. I know what''s to happen to me.
I was sleeping in our bed , suddenly my partner started to be temper called 911. Could police arrest me at that time? Thank you for America, you are so kind. And some japanese people talk about these selfish Americans sometime do this way. They don''t care they tell lies or call 911 to proceed their own way. They don''t care if they hit a car and claim victimized to sue real victims etc...
Even Japanese embassy note attention about those crazy Americans involve innocent Japanese in trouble in USA.

[nanging3]

speaking of betrayal...Betrayal to Catholics

www.thepetitionsite.com/1/removable-of-father-michael-pfleger


Please sign the petition to get "Father" Pfleger removed permanently. He is a disgrace to the Catholic church.

[nopatriot]

I had a finger mark he has grabbing my both arms he was pretty excite by himself. But even police did not see any thing to me. Only doctor in Jail listened to me. I believe it was abuse. However he apologized to me and he proceeded to destroy my arrested record but Oakland police rejected. I have never had such a crazy incident in my life. I am a Japanese protected by Japanese police for 38 years, suddenly abused by Oakland police officers who are racists do not ask me anything what'' s happened.
I don''t really believe USA police system, I did not do anything wrong, the crazy boyfriend did not want to stay with me and temporary wanted to take me away from his house. Anyway I hired a lawyer to take back my right status"destroy arrested record"
But I really get upset about this USA system.
IF the charge happened to me at that time, some racists might attack me as a criminal woman who attacked him.I was a successful in Japan, I was better live in japan more than proceed to get marry with temper horrible guy.

[nopatriot]

Only Hans knows what''s happened to him.
But I really felt strange if he had motivation to kill wife more than his successful business life.
By the way, Oakland Police does wrong way sometime.
When I was victimized in small argument, my boyfriend called 911 and told lies to police. Then police came to our house and took me away. It was horrible.Because I had no idea when my boyfriend started to get up set.Police did not listen to me at all. And they asked me "You hit him, scratched him."
Was torture to me. I did not charged (Of corse I did not touch him and I was afraid of him.) But amazingly He had scratch mark. I guess he got a mark from branch of trees or the corner of tray.
I know what'' really happened to me. I asked him "When will you get marry me?" He started to go out of the room and called police and told lies. I stayed at two nights in Oakland jail from his lies.
He insisted on even if he did not lie to police, police could take me away from his house. Yes, he was so mean to me. I had option to go back my own house but he did not let me go.

[carolcape]

This kind of crime happens quite regularly in severe custody disputes. She should never have gone to his home by herself, she was putting her children in harms way also. He definitely did kill her, the money issues and losing his children and the infidelity with his friend, who she left and then picked up with another man, doesn''t give much weight to her integrity. But from all accounts she was a good mother. The father in this case should have gotten custody of his children, with help from family members. He had as much right to them as she did. She should not have gone to his home by herself, she should have taken a lawyer. I''d say they had a severe argument and it got out of hand. The evidence against him was the blood in the home and also the car seat which was not in his car, very suspicious. Yes, the jury was right in convicting him, but I don''t know if they would have if they had the evidence of the boyfriend that killed 8 people, if he is telling the truth. She sure didn''t screen her men too good. Well, there is no justice for the children, because they now are motherless and fatherless, nobody really wins. The law won to get him behind bars, that is a good ending. Hope the children are well and happy.

[carolcape]

Why some of these women still put themselves in harms way when going through a custody dispute. She knew his temper and how volotile he could be, why put herself in his company alone? This is not the first woman who has done this and she is also putting her children in harms way, which has been evident recently by a family being wiped out by the father, because of custody matters. She should have never been in his company alone and should have taken another person with her, even her lawyer. This is a crime that happens over and over again, which doesn''t need to. I don''t think it was premeditated, I believe he went in a rage and killed her. If his carseat hadn''t been missing, possibly he would have gotten away with it. He did not have time to clean up the crime and that is what got him caught. He could have very well have gotten away with it if he hadn''t made so many foul ups, which was an excellent thing to happen for the law. Blessings to the two innocent children, who now have no mother and no father. Nobody wins. The law won here which is excellent. If the jury had known about this other boyfriend that had killed 8 people, I wonder would they have convicted him, I don''t think so.

[gopsoccermom]

Like many women, she just married him for his money and didnt care. Its sad how some women have evolved.

[killtheliars]

she is a Russian and gold digger. who cares what happened to her. She should have never been here in the first place.

[patriot12436]

If the wife was connected to the KGB they could give her a fake identity with a passport. It left out a lot of details as o why Hans was working in Russia, conviction without a body is very rare, a friend that admitted to killing other people and was her lover, another boyfriend, I wonder with so many holes to fill how did the jury convit. They are supposed to listen to the evidence and convict on facts. If i had been on the jury for O.J. Simpson i would have had to vote not guilty and i think he did it, but the prosecutor tuned out to be his best defense. Also why was the grandmother allowed to remove two American citizens to the Soviet Union. Sounds like maybe the sate department had some involvement here.

Hey! Didn''t you watch til the end? Hans is said to be willing to take authorities to where Nena''s body was buried in exchange for a lesser sentence...no body/no murder..ha! You peeps are dopes. Listen to his phone conversation with his mother...speaking of his "missing" wife in the PAST TENSE...wow...ignorance surely must be bliss.