Two of the gay men accused of covering up the slaying of Robert Wone told police that they were not attracted to him and that he was not their “cup of tea.”
In separate police interrogations, shown on video Tuesday in D.C. Superior Court, defendants Joseph Price and Dylan Ward, both 39, discussed their relationships with Wone. The 32-year-old lawyer was stabbed to death while visiting their Dupont Circle town house in August 2006.
Price and Ward told investigators that no one who lived in the house — Price, Ward or Victor Zaborsky, 44 — had romantic feelings for Wone.
The three men are on trial, charged with obstruction of justice, tampering with evidence and conspiracy.
Price told police that Wone was not gay. Price said Wone was “a very good friend,” but neither he nor his housemates found Wone attractive.
“I know Dylan,” he said. “Robert was not his cup of tea.”
Price also said Zaborsky also did not have feelings for Wone.
Wone, a lawyer for Radio Free Asia, was spending the night of Aug. 2, 2006, at the defendants’ home because of a night meeting for work. He planned to have a breakfast meeting with Price the next day.
Price and Ward told police they found nothing unconventional about Wone staying with them. Both said Wone and Price had been friends since college, and Wone’s wife testified last week that she knew he was spending the night.
Price said Wone had stayed overnight with him on at least two previous occasions but had not done so recently.
In court testimony Tuesday, Detective Sgt. Daniel Wagner, one of the D.C. police interrogators, said he was trying to learn about the relationships among the men and determine whether those relationships could have been a motive in the killing.
Authorities theorize that Wone was injected with a drug that caused paralysis, then sexually assaulted and killed.
In his videotaped interrogation, Ward said he believed an intruder entered the home and murdered Wone. He said he had “no reason” to think Price or Zaborsky was the killer.
Like Price told police in questioning shown Monday, Ward also said he didn’t hear anyone running out of the house.
Under cross examination, defense attorney Bernie Grimm tried to paint the police work as sloppy. In the video, Price told police that some contractors had house keys. But Wagner testified that he never followed up with those contractors.
