Lawyers for the men accused of covering up the killing of Robert Wone sought to portray an expert’s tests as shoddy experiments that don’t prove a knife found near Wone’s body was planted.
In more than four hours of cross examination over two days, defense attorneys tried to show that trace evidence examiner Douglas Deedrick had little knowledge of the crime-scene circumstances and his tests didn’t replicate what happened.
Deedrick’s tests suggested that the knife wasn’t used to kill Wone, who was found stabbed to death in a Dupont Circle townhouse on Aug. 2, 2006. Prosecutors say defendants Joseph Price, Dylan Ward and Victor Zaborsky used a towel to wipe the knife with Wone’s blood as part of the cover-up.
The three have been charged with obstruction of justice, tampering with evidence and conspiracy.
On the stand Friday, Deedrick admitted that he didn’t know information about the crime scene that could have affected his experiments.
In one test, Deedrick stabbed a pork loin wrapped in a T-shirt to test how fibers would transfer in a stabbing. He compared the fibers from his test with the crime-scene knife.
But Deedrick said he didn’t know how tight Wone’s shirt was, the degree of force used in the stabbing, or the age of either his test shirt or Wone’s shirt. He also said the test shirt was thinner than Wone’s.
Defense lawyer David Schertler contended that Deedrick should have known such factors could influence his results, quoting an article Deedrick wrote that said the “age of a fabric affects the degree of fiber transfer.”
Schertler said Deedrick “rigged” a fabric-imprint test to obtain the pattern he wanted. In that experiment, Deedrick wiped a towel dipped in horse blood on a knife, and compared the marks to the crime-scene knife. Schertler said the amount of blood Deedrick used and pressure he applied were arbitrary and had “no relation” to Wone’s case.
But Deedrick said he wasn’t trying to produce a certain result.
“I was trying to see the type of pattern the towel would leave on the knife,” he said.
It’s not clear whether Deedrick’s tests will be admitted as evidence. The defense says the experiments don’t adequately replicate the crime scene, that fabric-imprint identification is not a valid science and that Deedrick isn’t qualified to be an expert on fabric-imprint identification.
D.C. Superior Court Judge Lynn Leibovitz has yet to rule on those matters.
Friday wrapped up the second week of testimony. Prosecutors will present their case for at least another week in the trial, which resumes Tuesday.
