Comment by RajT88
2 years ago
I go back periodically and read the Wired article about it.
It is totally bananas:
The wildest part was the friend who had an affair with his wife who blurted out unprompted on the stand that he had killed 7 people. They let that guy go!
The 'weird nerds' defending Reiser brought this up time and again during the trial. But Reiser showed them all up by leading the authorities to where he had buried the body afterwards so I guess that that particular angle is now settled.
Yeah, some follow-up reporting found that the guy was lying for some weird reason. He said as much. I forget the reason.
Apparently it's a moderately common enough phenomena that cops intentionally keep aspects of a murder scene out of news and reports, so that they can check if someone knows them or not. People are sick enough for fame that they'll murder, and being sick enough for fame to confess to someone else's murder isn't nearly as bad.
I've read the same Wired article you have, it's confusing but it does not actually say that Sturgeon testified during the trial. Read it again.
Sean Sturgeon was not called by the prosecution or the defense. He did not testify at the trial. The defense hinted several times during the trial that the police had not adequately investigated Sturgeon for the murder.
Before the trial, Sturgeon called the Oakland police and said "I've killed 8 and half people, but I didn't kill Nina." The police didn't know what to do with the 'half' part, and discounted him as a crank.