Linux developer Hans Reiser is scheduled to start trial Monday for the alleged murder of his estranged wife, Nina Reiser, who's been missing since September. Now reporter Joshua Davis has the unexpected news that a witness in the case, described in past testimony as a former boyfriend of Nina, confessed to prosecutors that he murdered eight people unrelated to the case, and left a ninth for dead.

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.

The full story is here. Sturgeon, in an interview with Josh, adamantly denied any role in Nina Reiser's disappearance, and his confession hasn't resulted in his arrest. So it's not completely clear what's going on. But this is certainly going to throw the prosecution's case into chaos. Imagine if, in the middle of the O.J. trial, Kato Kaelin had suddenly announced he was a serial killer.

Photo: Reiser, right, at a March 9th hearing. (AP Photo/Laura A Oda, Pool)