Attorney Robert Wone’s Murder in Law Partner’s Upscale Home Is Still a Mystery

Somehow, attorney Robert Wone was murdered in the upscale Washington, D.C., townhome where he was visiting friends one sweltering summer night in 2006.

But exactly how that happened remains a head-scratcher, reports the Washington Post in a two-part series Sunday and yesterday that details at length the prosecution's theory of the case.

Although three roommates there—including former Arent Fox law firm partner Joseph Price—have been charged with conspiring to conceal the "true circumstances" of Wone's fatal stabbing in Price's Dupont Circle home, no one has been charged with Wone's murder.

And, as the Post articles make clear its own reporter, doesn't find the prosecution's theory of how the three roommates may have been involved in covering up Wone's perhaps sex-related killing—which occurred some 90 minutes after he entered the townhome that evening—entirely persuasive.

With their D.C. Superior Court trial still a year ahead of them, the three defendants aren't saying much. But in an e-mail to friends last year, they offered a glimpse of their situation:

"Our attorneys estimate that the cost of a trial, which will necessarily involve a number of experts, will run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars," they wrote, seeking donations to a legal defense fund.

"We have no choice but to sell and liquidate every asset in order to pay this staggering sum as our very freedom hangs in the balance. Our parents are doing the same, sacrificing retirement savings and taking on unprecedented debt to aid us."

Earlier coverage:

ABAJournal.com: "Prosecutor Seeks More Charges in Case of Murdered D.C. Area Attorney"