Reiser is victim of 'screw job,' lawyer says OAKLAND

###Live Caption: Nina Reiser ###Caption History: ** FILE ** Nina Reiser is seen in this 1999 California DMV photo. (AP Photo/DMV photo via The Oakland Tribune) Ran on: 12-18-2007 Hans Reiser Ran on: 12-18-2007 Hans Reiser Ran on: 12-19-2007 Hans Reiser Ran on: 12-19-2007 Hans Reiser Ran on: 12-19-2007 Hans Reiser Ran on: 12-19-2007 Ran on: 01-18-2008 Hans Reiser On trial Ran on: 01-18-2008 Ran on: 01-18-2008 Ran on: 01-29-2008 Hans Reiser Ran on: 01-29-2008 Hans Reiser Ran on: 01-30-2008 Hans Reiser Ran on: 01-30-2008 Ran on: 01-30-2008 Ran on: 02-15-2008 Nina Reiser Ran on: 02-15-2008 Ran on: 02-15-2008 Nina Reiser Ran on: 02-15-2008 Ran on: 02-26-2008 Nina Reiser Ran on: 02-28-2008 Nina Reiser Ran on: 02-28-2008 Nina Reiser Ran on: 02-29-2008 Hans Reiser Ran on: 02-29-2008 Ran on: 02-29-2008 Ran on: 02-29-2008 Hans Reiser Ran on: 02-29-2008 Hans Reiser Ran on: 03-27-2008 ###Notes: ###Special Instructions: NO SALES MAGS OUT NO INTERNET MANDATORY CREDIT 1999 FILE PHOTO, ADVANCE FOR USE MONDAY, NOV. 5, 2007 less ###Live Caption:Nina Reiser###Caption History:** FILE ** Nina Reiser is seen in this 1999 California DMV photo. (AP Photo/DMV photo via The Oakland Tribune) Ran on: 12-18-2007 Hans Reiser Ran on: 12-18-2007 ... more Photo: AP Photo: AP Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Reiser is victim of 'screw job,' lawyer says 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

Hans Reiser is the victim of a "screw job" perpetrated by his wife and "shading" of circumstantial evidence by prosecutors who insist he killed her even though her body hasn't been found, his attorney told jurors Thursday.

Reiser is being railroaded by both Nina Reiser, who married him so she could immigrate to the United States from her native Russia, and a prosecutor who has no real evidence, defense attorney William Du Bois said in the second day of his closing argument in Alameda County Superior Court.

As he did Wednesday, Du Bois compared his client to the odd-looking duck-billed platypus to emphasize his belief that even though Reiser, 44, can come across as strange and obnoxious, that doesn't mean he murdered his wife.

"I was trying to think recently how a platypus could even evolve," Du Bois said. "It must have been a genetic mistake. That's why it reminded me of ..." Du Bois' voice trailed off as he turned his head and gave a disdainful look at his client, prompting laughter in Judge Larry Goodman's Oakland courtroom.

Nina Reiser was 31 when she disappeared Sept. 3, 2006, after dropping off her children at her husband's Oakland hills home. Her body hasn't been found, and Du Bois has told jurors that she could be alive and living anywhere in Europe. Her children are living with their maternal grandmother in St. Petersburg, Russia.

If Nina Reiser is dead, others could have killed her, Du Bois told the jury. Oakland police failed to conduct a proper investigation of Sean Sturgeon, Hans Reiser's best friend until he had an extramarital affair with Nina Reiser, the attorney said. Nor did authorities look into whether there had been any "sexual trysts" between Nina Reiser and men she may have met through online Craigslist ads, he said.

"Not one of them was contacted by the Oakland police - that would be inconsistent with the theory that they ultimately wanted to bring," Du Bois said.

"We don't know if (Nina Reiser) had a prearranged plan to meet with one of them when she left Hans' house (the day she was last seen), or had prearranged plans to meet Sean Sturgeon when she left Hans' house," the defense attorney said.

Du Bois said Hans Reiser is the victim of "one of the great screw jobs," perpetrated by his wife. "It's easy to screw a platypus," he said.

The defense put a picture of a platypus on the screen in court. On Wednesday, Du Bois repeatedly held up a stuffed-animal platypus.

Du Bois said many of Hans Reiser's actions after his wife disappeared, such as using a hose to spray the interior of his mother's Honda CRX and remove the car's passenger seat, weren't meant to hide or destroy evidence.

"As a matter of fact, his conduct is equally as consistent with someone who is naive, paranoid - but not guilty - as it is with someone who is guilty," Du Bois said. "When you think about it, Hans did nothing irrational, as the prosecutor said, or impulsive."

Reiser, a computer programmer who founded his own company, "thinks about everything," Du Bois said.

He said police and prosecutors cherry-picked certain points to make Reiser look guilty. "There's a shading that happens," Du Bois said. "Sometimes, shading can be the difference between life and death."

Prosecutor Paul Hora was trying to evoke the Scott Peterson case in emphasizing the fact that Reiser was carrying thousands of dollars in his fanny pack when officers detained him for a DNA sample and also when he was arrested, Du Bois said.

Peterson, too, was carrying a large amount of cash when he was arrested for killing his wife, Laci, and her fetus.

Hora has argued to jurors that they could disregard all of Reiser's testimony because he lied on the stand when he said he had never removed the battery from his cell phone to avoid being tracked.

Du Bois told the jurors Thursday that if they use that standard, then they should also reject testimony by Nina Reiser's mother, Irina Sharanova. Sharanova lied on the stand when she denied having coached her grandson before he testified, Du Bois said.

Du Bois dismissed testimony by a police criminalist who said bloodstains containing Nina Reiser's DNA had been found on a pillar in her husband's home and on a sleeping bag sack in his car. There's no way to tell when or how her DNA got on the pillar - which also contained the defendant's DNA - and she could have drooled on the sleeping bag sack, Du Bois said.

"You can't convict a man on murder based on the prosecution's suggestion that perhaps the sleeping bag picked up on this very weak sample from something that was on the floor of the car," Du Bois said. "There's no evidence, none."

The trial is in recess today. Du Bois is expected to finish his argument Monday, after which Hora will provide a rebuttal argument. The judge will then give the jury instructions and the panel will begin deliberating.

Trial blog: Follow Henry K. Lee's blog from the Reiser trial at sfgate.com/ZBLS.