On the eve of the most anticipated Washington murder trial in recent years, prosecutors still don’t know who plunged the knife into Robert Wone.
But they think at least one of the three defendants know.
Today the government will set out to prove that Joseph Price, 39, Victor Zaborsky, 44, and Dylan Ward, 39, tampered with the crime scene and obstructed justice to prevent authorities from solving the murder of Wone, 32. The housemates each face a maximum of 38 years in prison if convicted.
The mystery of Wone’s death, with its twists, turns and famous-for-D.C.-personalities, has captivated the nation’s capital and beyond. Zaborsky was the marketing executive behind the catchy “Got Milk” campaign. Price was a prominent lawyer at the Arent Fox law firm in Washington. Before the slaying, Price and Zaborsky were featured in a USA Today story about gay parents. The now-U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder represented Wone’s wife, Kathy, as she pleaded for the killer to come forward. On Aug. 2, 2006, Wone, 32, general counsel for Radio Free Asia, worked late and decided to stay at the $1.2 million three-story Dupont Circle home of Price, his college chum. Before the clock struck midnight, Wone was found stabbed to death on the guest bed. When paramedics arrived, the housemates were wearing robes and appeared as if they had just showered. Investigators said there were three stab wounds in Wone’s chest, but barely any blood. There was no sign of struggle or forced entry. Police found needle marks on Wone’s neck, chest, foot and hand, and said he was drugged into a paralyticlike state and sexually assaulted before he was stabbed to death. The knife wounds entered Wone cleanly and there was no evidence that Wone tried to protect himself. The purported murder weapon — a bloody butcher knife on the nightstand — was not used in the killing, but placed there to throw the investigation off, police said. The housemates, who are romantically linked and considered themselves a family, say an intruder killed Wone. Defense attorneys are forgoing a jury trial, concerned that the intense media coverage will damage their clients’ case. Instead, the fate of the housemates rests in the hands of D.C. Superior Court Judge Lynn Leibovitz, a no-nonsense jurist known to chastise unprepared attorneys. She is expected to hear each side summarize their case in opening arguments Monday morning.
