A paramedic testified Thursday that two friends of slain lawyer Robert Wone were acting strangely when authorities arrived at the death scene.
D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services staffer Jeff Baker confirmed in D.C. Superior Court that he saw Victor Zaborsky, 44, standing outside the Dupont Circle town house where police found Wone dead on Aug. 2, 2006, and he was “sobbing uncontrollably.”
But, Baker added, “I didn’t feel like his crying was sincere.”
Baker said he also noticed the behavior of another man at the scene, 39-year-old Dylan Ward.
“For somebody just being stabbed in your friend’s residence … he did not appear to be upset,” Baker said, explaining how Ward wouldn’t look him in the eye.
Police found Wone, 32, in an upstairs room lying on a bed, sheets unturned, with three stab wounds to his chest. There was little blood surrounding the 4- to 5-inch wounds, according to police documents.
D.C. police officer Gregory Alemian said that when he arrived at the scene he found Zaborsky, Ward and Joseph Price, 39, gathered in a downstairs room. Alemian asked the men what had happened.
Ward started to explain, then Price “glared at [Ward], gave him a stern look … and Ward stopped talking,” Alemian said.
Ward “looked like a little kid about to get in trouble, like his Dad or Mom gave him that look,” he said.
“Price then said, ‘We heard a chime. There’s a black guy, or man, that lives in the alley. There’s a knife next to the bed,’ ” Alemian recalled.
Prosecutors say they don’t know who killed Wone because Price, Zaborsky and Ward cleaned up the crime scene and misdirected detectives. The men are charged with conspiracy, obstruction of justice and tampering with evidence.
Price’s attorney, Bernie Grimm, pointed out that Alemian never reported the alleged “glare,” until several weeks ago when he told prosecutors.
On Aug. 3, 2006, a medical examiner began Wone’s autopsy, and said she found some red flags.
She said Wone likely would have had several minutes to struggle with his assailant before the wounds killed or rendered him unconscious.
“The placement and orientation of the wounds is what struck me immediately,” Lois Goslinoski, deputy medical examiner for the District, testified. “They were all oriented in the same direction … and I’m used to seeing irregularity indicating movement” by either the victim or the assailant.
