Robert WoneA recent court filing in the ongoing Robert Wone case outlines some of the prosecution’s theories as to how the lawyer may have been killed, as well as why the three men facing conspiracy and obstruction charges are covering it up.
In the filing, made public on Feb. 15, lead prosecutor Glenn Kirschner noted that while the murder investigation remains open, “there is ample admissible evidence demonstrating the killer is someone known to the defendants,” he wrote. Joseph Price, Victor Zaborsky and Dylan Ward, who are charged with obstruction in the case, have always maintained that an unknown intruder entered the house on Swann Street on the night of the murder, but prosecutors argue that can’t be true.
“The evidence overwhelmingly indicates that the killer is someone know [sic] to and being protected by the defendants,” reads the filing. Prosecutors then go on to rehash all the sordid sexual details of the crime, including the theory that Wone was either injected with an incapacitating drug or restrained, that he was sexually assaulted, that both the room and body were scrubbed clean before police arrived, and that nothing was stolen from the house. They also offered a lengthy list of all the kinky bondage gear allegedly recovered from Ward’s bedroom, things like ‘multiple “hog tie” devices,’ ‘black leather mouth gags,’ and ‘metal anal probes.’ Multiple pieces of evidence that Ward was allegedly an avid practitioner of using electric shocks in his role as a sexual dominant are also mentioned. As Who Murdered Robert Wone? writes, “Kirschner has taken the bones of the accusations and theories spelled out in the original affidavit and put meat on them. Restraint, incapacitation by injection, sexual assault. It’s all in there. And then some.”
One new piece of theory in the filing is evidence to do with Michael Price, the brother of Joseph Price. Prosecutors say they discovered that Michael Price, who had previously been looked at by police as a suspect in the murder, had been enrolled in a phlebotomy class, which teaches nursing students how to draw blood, at Montgomery College at the time. Price, they say, was notably absent from class the night of Wone’s murder. They also bring up evidence that tied Price to a later burglary at the Swann Street house, and note that witnesses told them Joseph Price was in the habit of covering up for his brother. Michael Price was later discovered to have had a key to 1509 Swann Street.
In short, it appears prosecutors will likely introduce evidence during the trial that is tied to crimes, like murder and sexual assault, for which no one has been charged. They also say in the filing that they plan to introduce as yet undisclosed evidence, including previous crimes associated with the three defendants, though they do not specify what those crimes are.
Legal Times has a .pdf copy of the filing for those who’d like to read the whole thing.
