2007-03-09 13:14:00 PST OAKLAND -- Oakland computer programmer Hans Reiser will stand trial for murder in the suspected slaying of his estranged wife, a judge ruled today in a case that has drawn national attention.

After hearing six days of testimony over the course of three months, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Julie Conger ruled that prosecutor Greg Dolge had presented ample evidence that Reiser, 43, may have killed his wife, Nina Reiser, 31, in September during a bitter divorce.

Even though Nina Reiser's body hasn't been found, "There is strong suspicion that an offense has been committed -- namely, Nina Reiser is dead," Conger said. "I can see no other reasonable conclusion that can be drawn from the evidence presented."

The judge added that although she had problems with the prosecution's theory about what happened, there was also a "strong suspicion" that the defendant had the motive to kill his wife, based on the "totality of the circumstances."

The defendant, who is well known in computer-programming circles as the creator of the ReiserFS file system, is to be arraigned March 23. He is being held without bail at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin.

Reiser showed no emotion today as Conger made her ruling in an Oakland courtroom shortly after Dolge -- for the first time -- outlined his theory about how the killing occurred: that the defendant lured his wife to the home he shared with his mother, started arguing with her and disabled or killed her at the home before hiding her body as well as her van.

"She did not make it away from that house," Dolge said.

Nina Reiser's 2001 Honda Odyssey was found six days after she disappeared about 3 miles from Hans Reiser's home, groceries askew in the back seat as if someone had driven the minivan wildly, police said.

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Outside court, Reiser's attorney, William Du Bois, criticized the judge's decision, saying "it was the easy way out" as well as the result of conjecture.

"There is unquestionable evidence that the client did not commit this crime," Du Bois said. "The judge had to push the envelope of speculation to reach this judgment."

Du Bois told the judge today that his client had no opportunity to kill his wife. During the preliminary hearing, the couple's 7-year-old son testified that, contrary to an earlier police account, he hadn't heard his parents arguing and that he had seen his mother walk out the door of his father's home on Sept. 3, the day police believe that Nina Reiser, a Russian-born gynecologist, was killed.

After the boy left the stand, Conger said she had further questions for the boy and asked him to return to testify in closed court. But that never happened, as attorneys told the judge that the boy had failed to return from a planned visit to Russia and might never come back. A Russian therapist had recommended that the boy not return to the United States on the grounds that he was traumatized by the alleged slaying of his mother, the attorneys said.

Conger ultimately lifted her request to have the boy return to testify. Today, Dolge urged the judge to consider the boy's testimony as part of a whole and to consider that he may have been "flat-out wrong" in some of his recollection of key dates.

"He clearly is not an entirely reliable witness," Dolge said.

At the preliminary hearing, Oakland police criminalist Shannon Cavness testified that traces of blood matching that of Nina Reiser were found in her estranged husband's car and home. Neighbors saw the defendant hosing down his driveway around the time of her disappearance, police said.

Hans Reiser's Honda was missing its front passenger seat when police seized it Sept. 19, Cavness testified. After technicians removed the carpeting from the front seat area, they noticed that the floorboard had been saturated with water, Cavness said.

Inside the car, police found a 40-piece socket set, Cavness said. The tools appeared to have been used to remove four bolts that had been used to attach the passenger seat to the floor, she said.

Also found inside the car, according to police, were a roll of trash bags, masking tape, a siphon pump, absorbent towels and two books: "Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets," by David Simon, about the Baltimore police homicide squad, and "Masterpieces of Murder," by Jonathan Goodman, about notorious murder cases.

Police officers testified that Reiser tried to elude their surveillance -- by car and by plane -- in the weeks after his wife disappeared.

Reiser's attorney has contended that there is no proof Nina Reiser is dead and that the prosecution's case is circumstantial.

Du Bois has noted that the couple's 5-year-old daughter is in Russia with her brother and suggested that Nina Reiser is alive and with her children.

Nina Reiser obtained Russian citizenship for her daughter two years ago and did the same for her son in July, two months before she disappeared, Du Bois said, noting that Russia doesn't recognize dual citizenship.