As if the long-anticipated murder trial of Matt Baker wasn’t yielding enough intrigue, KCEN-TV, Channel 9, has tapped as its on-air legal expert Abel Reyna. Each day Reyna sums up for viewers the work of the very prosecution team he wants to oversee come 2011 by ousting their boss in the 2010 election.

Talk about subplots. Reyna, a talented, charismatic attorney, announced last year his run for the post of McLennan County district attorney, long held by John Segrest. So imagine our surprise when Reyna turned up as KCEN’s legal expert, cutting through courtroom jargon, discussing legal strategy and weighing in on circumstantial evidence such as that used in the Baker trial.

We question the judgment in all this — not Reyna’s but that of KCEN management in failing to abide by equal-time rules and guidelines. Unfortunately, there are several exceptions station management could probably cite besides the explanation they’re offering — that the election isn’t till November.

In their eyes, the contest hasn’t reached a fever pitch yet, so tapping Segrest’s opponent to be a legal expert is permissible.

Besides, we assume you have to be pretty inventive when NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker is busy laying waste to your TV programming, including late-night talk shows.

This all reminds us of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram’s ploy during the trial of O.J. Simpson, another instance in which prosecutors sought to convict a man in his wife’s killing. Star-Telegram editors picked a “jury,” had it watch trial proceedings from morning till night, then wrote up the jurors’ verdict on each day’s evidence for an engaging news story.

Happily, that didn’t involve candidates actually running against each other.

Even so, we have to admit Reyna looks and sounds great on TV. He even praised the prosecution case presumably engineered to some degree by his opponent. And if the fall election doesn’t work out for him and the legal caseload slows, he can always console himself in his easy conquest of the airwaves.

One caveat: TV broadcasting in midsized markets doesn’t ordinarily pay a lot. He might want to keep that day job.