Hans Reiser, the Linux file system creator on trial in California for the alleged murder of his missing wife, is proving to be a handful for his own lawyer William DuBois.

Having reportedly memorized the 9,000 pages of discovery, Reiser has been second-guessing everything the lawyer says in court and interrupting to the point DuBois has complained to the trial judge, according to Wired, which is doing gavel-to-gavel coverage.

The book heard DuBois tell a bailiff if Reiser was kicked out of court things would be a lot better.

The defense contends that Nina Reiser, last known to be with her estranged husband Labor Day weekend last year, faked her own death and vamoosed to her native Russia.

Aside from the $100 worth of groceries she had just bought and left in her abandoned minivan along with her purse, that premise would mean she left her children with a man she apparently loathed and accused in her divorce papers of psychologically traumatizing her five-year-old son by making him watch violent movie and play violent video games. She won full custody of the children, which the prosecution claims caused Reiser to unravel.

DuBois is praying his client doesn't insist on testifying, fearing he may not come across well with the jury, he told the press. "Intellect is not always an ally," he said.

Reiser is supposed to be a genius who dropped out of high school to go to Berkeley at the age of 15. When he was arrested he was carrying $8,000 and his passport. The cops found traces of blood at his house and in his car, which had a missing front seat and a wet rug. It also appears that he was looking for a lock-up for his car, which he had initially tried to hide on the street.

The trial only got through three days of opening statements Thursday and the judge had already denied one defense motion for a mistrial.

DuBois objected to the prosecution playing a tape of a phone call between Reiser and his mother three weeks after Nina went missing. Basically he's saying, "She got what she deserved."