An investigation and a trial: The murder of Robert Wone
A surprise verdict
On Tuesday, June 29, 2010, Judge Lynn Leibovitz found Joseph Price and his two life partners, Victor Zaborsky, and Dylan Ward, not guilty of charges of conspiracy and obstruction of justice in the murder Robert Wone, a houseguest who had been one of Price's oldest friends. She also found Price not guilty of the additional evidence tampering charge against him. It was a surprise verdict in favor of three men whom many had suspected right from the start.
Wone, a young lawyer, had worked late in Washington, D.C., the night of August 2, 2006, and had arranged to stay with the three men at 1509 Swann Street rather than make the long commute back to the suburban Virginia home he shared with his wife. The men each said they had all retired soon after Wone arrived at the house. And shortly thereafter, they said, screams woke them, and they found that Wone had been stabbed. The trio would insist that someone must have entered through an unlocked back door and attacked Wone. Police and prosecutors found that scenario unlikely and strove to prove that the men were protecting the killer. That the three men shared an unusual sexual lifestyle, and that Price's brother had a history of crime and drug abuse, spurred public speculation about the crime.
