By Emily Babay
Examiner Staff Writer
Metropolitan Police Det. Bryan Kasul had a clear message for Victor Zaborsky, one of three men accused of covering up the murder of Robert Wone: “You’re not being honest.”
Kasul repeatedly, and at times aggressively, accused Zaborsky, 44, of lying about what happened the night of Aug. 2, 2006, when Wone was found dead in the Dupont Circle townhouse where Zaborsky lived with co-defendants Joseph Price and Dylan Ward, both 39.
“One of you killed him,” Kasul told Zaborsky in a taped interrogation, shown Wednesday in D.C. Superior Court. “Two of you tried to cover it up.”
Throughout the half-hour interview, Kasul lied to Zaborsky, saying that Price and Ward had incriminated him, and suggested that the men could be charged with murder.
But Zaborsky stuck to his story that he was telling the truth and didn’t know who killed Wone.
Zaborsky, Price and Ward are on trial, charged with obstruction of justice, tampering with evidence and conspiracy. In separate police interviews, all have insisted that no one in the house would have killed Wone, so the perpetrator must have been a burglar.
The prosecution tried to debunk that theory Wednesday, trying to show through the taped interviews and detective testimony that an intruder couldn’t have broken in through the back door and then fatally stabbed Wone.
In an interview with Det. Dan Lewis, also shown in court Wednesday, Zaborsky maintained that the trio was innocent.
Lewis was skeptical that someone jumped over the backyard fence at 1509 Swann St. NW.
Zaborsky conceded that it seemed hard to believe, but said, “I don’t see how it could be anything else.”
Earlier Wednesday, Lewis testified that the backyard showed no signs of disruption when he examined it after the incident.
He said he did not see footprints in the dirt, or scuff marks indicating that someone had climbed over the fence, and said he found undisturbed dust and spiderwebs near the top of the fence.
He also said the back door was ajar, but the back gate was locked.
While cross-examining Lewis, defense attorney Bernie Grimm displayed a photograph of the fence taken the morning of Aug. 3, 2006, which showed no dust on the fence railing. Lewis maintained that dust was present when he examined the scene.
