The defense began presenting its case in the Robert Wone conspiracy trial Thursday, after a judge acquitted two of the three defendants on charges of tampering with evidence.
D.C. Superior Court Judge Lynn Leibovitz ruled that a reasonable juror could not find evidence supporting the tampering charges against Dylan Ward and Victor Zaborsky.
But she denied the rest of the defense’s motion for a full acquittal. The tampering charge against Joseph Price and charges of conspiracy and obstruction of justice against all three men still stand.
Leibovitz said there was no evidence that Ward or Zaborsky touched the knife prosecutors allege was planted in the guest room in the trio’s Dupont Circle town house, where Wone was found dead on Aug. 2, 2006.
She said her decision was not a signal of how she would rule at the close of the trial, which is now in its fourth week.
Price could face up to 38 years in prison if convicted of all charges. Ward and Zaborsky could face sentences up to 35 years if convicted of the remaining charges.
The defense began its case Thursday by trying to discredit a key part of the prosecution’s case — the claim that the knife found by Wone’s body wasn’t used to kill him.
Nicholas Petraco, an independent forensic consultant, testified that he saw no distinctions among cotton fibers from the knife, a towel found at the scene and Wone’s T-shirt when they were examined under a fluorescent microscope.
That means neither the towel nor the shirt can be excluded as the source of the knife’s fibers, said Petraco, who has worked for the New York City Police Department. His testimony rebutted the opinions of trace evidence examiner Douglas Deedrick, who testified for the prosecution that the knife’s fibers likely didn’t come from Wone’s shirt.
Petraco also said blood on the knife’s bolster — the part between the blade and the handle — appeared to be drops of blood, not wipe marks.
Deedrick had testified that the marks on the knife could have come from the towel, which prosecutors say was used to wipe the knife with blood. But Petraco said he didn’t see a textile pattern on the blood on the knife.
