Legal News

In Wone Case, Puncture Marks Might Not Be Enough for Judge

By Ashby Jones

It can be a challenge to keep up with the minute-by-minute minutiae of a long-running murder investigation and prosecution — and we definitely haven’t done that in regard to the tragic situation involving Robert Wone, who was murdered in a Washington, D.C., townhouse on the night of Aug. 2, 2006.

But we’ll try to give you the bigger developments, as we get them — and today, we have a couple. (In any event, for perhaps the best coverage of the situation, check out the Who Murdered Robert Wone? blog.)

The very brief background:

Wone, pictured, was murdered a little over three years ago while visiting friends in a tony section of Dupont Circle, in Washington, D.C. At the time, he was the newly installed general counsel at Radio Free Asia. Wone, who seemed a soft-spoken and well-liked type, left behind a wife. He was 32. Over two years passed before any criminal charges were filed - and then only conspiracy, obstruction of justice and tampering charges were brought against the three housemates Joe Price, Victor Zaborsky and Dylan Ward. For background on the murder and ensuing investigation, click here, here, here and here for LB posts, and here and here for a pair of Washington Post stories from June.

Two developments to report out today. For starters, the BLT blog has reported that, while federal prosecutors are convinced that Wone was injected with a drug before he was fatally stabbed, they may never get a chance to tell jurors the injection theory.

At a status hearing in the case on Friday, D.C. Superior Court Judge Frederick Weisberg said that he is "most reluctant" to let prosecutors argue that Wone was injected with a paralytic drug if the government is unable to put up more evidence to support the theory.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Martin, a lead prosecutor in the case, said the government has all the evidence it needs: needle marks on Wone's body and no evidence that Wone was restrained or that he fought back. That Wone didn't put up a fight or even clutch his chest, prosecutors say, is a sign that he couldn't move when he was stabbed.

The second development comes courtesy of the Robert Wone blog referred to above.

Write the authors:

As the AUSA, FBI and defense teams wrestle it out over potential biologic evidence and high-tech testing, an old-school statement by the first responding MPD officer on the scene the night of August 2nd may shed new light on what the housemates knew, and their explanation(s) of the events that evening.

Unreported so far, MPD officer Diane Durham's statement of Joe Price's first narrative of the evening's events presents a starkly different story of what he would later relate. Starkly.

Police officer Diane Durham, in her statement taken August 3rd at 6am by officer G. Russell Brown, relates the following:

"He said they heard someone scream and ran downstairs to see. said the victim was at the patio door bleeding, they opened the door, took him upstairs and laid him on the bed."

Price's interrogation statement in the affidavit . . . differs significantly.

"…when he arrived at the guest room he found Robert Wone laying in bed already having been stabbed."

The plot thickens. Trial on the obstruction, conspiracy and tampering charges are scheduled to begin next May. Additionally, Wone's widow, Kathy, has sued the three housemates for wrongful death. She is requesting $20 million in the suit, which is being handled by Covington & Burling’s Benjamin Razi.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on September 14, 2009 (boomark / email).