Prosecutors in the Robert Wone conspiracy case called one rebuttal witness Wednesday afternoon.
Dr. Lance Becker, director of the Center for Resuscitation Science at the University of Pennsylvania, testified that animals can live in a condition called pulseless electrical activity for longer than 20 minutes.
Wone was in that condition, called PEA by medical personnel, when he was transported to the hospital, an emergency medical technician testified Tuesday.
Becker’s testimony refuted that of a doctor who testified for the defense that someone can’t survive in PEA for more than 12 minutes, suggesting that Wone must have been stabbed just before defendants Joseph Price, Dylan Ward and Victor Zaborsky called 911. Prosecutors claim the men delayed calling for help, giving them time to plan a cover-up.
Price, Ward and Zaborsky are accused of covering up Wone’s Aug. 2, 2006, stabbing death in their Dupont Circle townhouse.
No trials have set an absolute outer limit for survival in PEA, Becker testified. But he also said the studies have been done on animals, and don’t perfectly correspond with human results.
Closing arguments in the trial will take place Thursday.
