New Questions in D.C. Lawyer's Murder

A prosecutor with the U.S. Attorney's Office admitted Friday that evidence has been mishandled in the case of the murder of Robert Wone, a lawyer found stabbed to death in a Dupont Circle row house in August 2006.

A BlackBerry belonging to the victim was not copied as planned, leaving prosecutors without two crucial email messages allegedly sent by the victim on the night he died.

Prosecutor Glenn Kirschner told the court the email messages were contained on a BlackBerry mishandled by the Secret Service. An attempt to recover them so far has failed.

The existence of the email messages first surfaced this week when the government included the evidence in a motion, claiming on the night of the murder, August 2, 2006, Robert Wone typed two messages on his BlackBerry. One of them was sent at 11:05 p.m., telling his wife he was going to bed, and the other was sent at 11:07 p.m., confirming a lunch appointment with an associate for the next day.

The lead detective in the case says he saw the messages, but there is no evidence they were ever sent.

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Wone's widow, Kathy, says she never received the email.

"If the decedent was sending email messages at 11:05 p.m. and 11:07 p.m., then obviously he wasn't dead," said Defense Attorney Bernard Grimm. "That would be critical to the government's case, but also more critical to the defense because it closes the window of the amount of time someone could have killed him. In this case it's alleged our clients orchestrated this whole thing."

Prosecutors believe Robert Wone was sexually tortured for at least an hour before he was killed, and the crime scene was cleaned up. The police were called.

Victor Zaborsky called 911 at 11:49 p.m., just 42 minutes after Wone allegedly sent his last email. None of the three defendants are charged with the murder—only with obstruction of justice and conspiracy.

"There is no BlackBerry," said Grimm. "It hasn't been imaged, it's been returned to Radio-Free Asia, and we don't know if they know where it is. If it's been redistributed throughout the office to some person."

The Secret Service was asked to copy all of the computers and other electronic devices taken out of the house. The BlackBerry was not.

Partners Joe Price and Zaborsky, along with their roommate Dylan Ward, have claimed from the very beginning that an intruder killed Wone, a married man who was spending the night at the house on Swann Street becaue he had been working late and didn't want to drive home to Oakton.
Wone and Price had been roommates in college.

In addition to the email evidence, prosecutors also revealed this week that defendant Joe Price listed 'torture' as an activity he enjoyed. It was discovered in a profile on a website called Alt.com.

The defense says there is no evidence that Robert Wone was tortured. No trial date has been set. Both sides will be back in court on May 22.

Gov't Response to Defendents' Joint Motion to Compel Discovery in the Murder of Robert Wone