A former lover of the missing wife of Linux programmer and accused spouse killer Hans Reiser has confessed to killing eight people unrelated to the case, prosecutors informed the defense last week.

Sean Sturgeon, a one-time friend of Reiser's, had already been a focus of the defense team's efforts to shift suspicion off Reiser in the disappearance of his estranged wife, Nina Reiser. Sturgeon's alleged confession to a series of unrelated murders will likely complicate the trial, which is set to begin Monday.

"(Deputy District Attorney) Paul Hora indicated that the court was ordering him to divulge this information," defense attorney Richard Tamor said last Friday. "He also said that Sturgeon had confessed to a potential ninth murder, but that Sturgeon wasn't sure if the victim was fully dead when he left him."

"Sturgeon claims that the murders were in retaliation for his abuse as a child," said Ramon Reiser, Hans Reiser's father, who was briefed by the defense team over the weekend and spoke to Wired News on Sunday.

On Monday, Superior Court Judge Don Clay issued a gag order barring attorneys on both sides from discussing Sturgeon.

Prosecutor Hora declined to comment on the confession Thursday, or on any law enforcement investigation of Sturgeon, citing the gag order. "In fact, I can't even comment on the gag order because the order is sealed," Hora said.

Reached by phone Wednesday night, Sturgeon did not deny that he had made the confession.

Sturgeon's answers in the 40-minute interview were frequently evasive, and he declined to answer specific questions about the alleged killings. "I have offered to be judged for my crimes," he said at one point. "I take responsibility for what I have done."

Nonetheless, he vigorously denied killing Nina Reiser. "I've never been a threat to Nina Reiser," Sturgeon said. "I will take a lie-detector test. I will take whatever passes for truth serum these days." He also indicated that the evidence pointed to Hans Reiser's guilt. "I will not take credit for what another has done," he said. "Let Hans take a lie-detector test about Nina."

It's unclear when Sturgeon made the confession – he would say only, "I have cooperated since day one." Asked why he had confessed at all, he responded with this question: "In a murder case, if somebody has killed, who is a witness, is it relevant? Yes or no?"

When this reporter responded that it was relevant, Sturgeon said, "Then you have the answer to your question."

Sturgeon added that confessing was one of the most difficult decisions of his life. He also regrets being a source of distraction in the case, joking that he is not so much a red herring as a "red Sturgeon."

Nina Reiser was last seen Sept. 3 at the home Hans Reiser shared with his mother in the Montclair area of Oakland, California. Her van turned up five days later, abandoned on a quiet residential street two miles from Reiser's home. Though no body has been found, Reiser was arrested Oct. 10 after the Oakland Police Department found small drops of blood in his house and in his Honda CRX. DNA testing tied the blood to Nina Reiser.

According to testimony in preliminary hearings in the case, Nina Reiser had once dated Sturgeon, but broke off their relationship in January 2006 because she was unhappy with his lifestyle and taste for sadomasochism.