Local
Trial begins in Wone murder case
Judge blocks evidence on alleged paralytic drug, S&M restraints
A long-awaited trial opened this week for three gay men implicated in the murder of attorney Robert Wone, who was found stabbed to death inside the men’s Dupont Circle area townhouse in August 2006.
Joseph Price, 39, his domestic partner, Victor Zaborsky, 44, and the couple’s roommate, Dylan Ward, 39, have been charged with obstruction of justice, conspiracy and evidence tampering in connection with Wone’s murder. If convicted on all three charges, the men face a possible maximum sentence of 38 years in prison.
Authorities have yet to charge anyone with the murder itself, a development that has created an air of mystery and intrigue and has captured the interest of the gay community as well as local and national media.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys said they could present 80 or more witnesses and expect the trial to last as long as 10 weeks. Jury selection was scheduled to begin Wednesday at D.C. Superior Court, with opening arguments set for Monday.
Judge Lynn Leibovitz ruled Tuesday against the defense team’s attempt to separate the joint case so that each defendant could be tried individually rather than together in a shared trial.
The defense argued that the men should be tried separately because it would be impossible for prosecutors to avoid violating constitutionally mandated rules of evidence that statements made by one defendant can’t be used against another defendant in a joint trial. But Leibovitz said the defendants’ rights would be protected by strict limits she imposed on the prosecution concerning the introduction of the defendants’ statements about each other.
Defense attorneys were especially concerned about prosecutors’ plans to show jurors videotaped interviews of each of the defendants by homicide detectives conducted shortly after the murder. At Leibovitz’s instruction, prosecutors said they would edit the videos to remove any statements by the defendants that would incriminate a co-defendant.
After months of pre-trial wrangling over the admissibility of evidence, Leibovitz forced prosecutors in the days before the trial began to withdraw several key elements in their case, including allegations that the crime scene was cleaned of blood.
Under pressure that Leibovitz would rule against them and claims by the defense that the government lacked sufficient evidence, prosecutors also agreed not to introduce testimony that Wone may have been immobilized with a paralytic drug or restrained by S&M devices found in the men’s house before being stabbed three times in the chest.
Also excluded was any testimony by police regarding the collection of S&M devices they found in the house, including restraining harnesses, face masks, books about sadomasochism, and a device used to administer an electric shock to a person during sexual activity.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Glenn Kirschner, the lead prosecutor in the case, has said introduction of the S&M devices as evidence was intended to show that Wone might have been restrained at the time he was stabbed.
Kirschner has said the government nonetheless remains confident it has sufficient evidence to prove that the killer “is someone known to the defendants” and that the three men conspired to obstruct the police investigation into the crime.
Kirschner has said he also remains optimistic that the government will demonstrate to the jury that Wone was not murdered by some “unknown, unseen, phantom intruder,” as the defense has alleged.
In pleading not guilty to the charges, the three gay men have said through their attorneys that an intruder entered their house through a rear door while they were asleep and killed Wone.
Wone, a friend of Price since the two attended Virginia’s College of William & Mary, spent the night at the men’s house on Swann Street, N.W., after working late at his nearby office. Wone’s wife, Kathy Wone, and family members have said Wone was straight.
The defendants have retained an experienced and highly regarded team of nearly one dozen defense attorneys, including former prosecutors such as the openly gay former D.C. Attorney General Robert Spagnoletti.
Since Price, Zaborsky and Ward were indicted in the case in 2008, the attorneys have methodically challenged nearly every piece of evidence and legal theory advanced by the government, accusing prosecutors of “manufacturing” a sensational case that isn’t supported by the facts.
In a final series of pre-trial hearings over the past month, Kirschner, chief of the homicide division at the U.S. Attorney’s office, and his smaller team of prosecutors, have sought to defend a case built largely around the aspects of a stabbing death reportedly committed by an outside intruder that were conspicuously missing in the Wone murder.
Citing the autopsy and crime scene findings, prosecutors note that although Wone was stabbed three times in the chest area, including once in the heart, there was hardly any blood on the guest room bed where he was found or on the floor or walls. This prompted prosecutors to conclude in a lengthy arrest affidavit released in October 2008 that someone in the house had “cleaned” the crime scene.
The affidavit points to an autopsy finding that the three stab wounds on Wone’s chest area were surgical-like and undistorted rather than the jagged cuts usually found on a stabbing victim, who would be expected to recoil in pain and move around in an effort to defend himself — even if he were sleeping in a bed, as the defendants say was the case with Wone.
Additionally, there were no defensive wounds on Wone’s hands or arms that are normally found on victims stabbed more than once, who traditionally position their arms to deflect the path of a knife-wielding attacker, prosecutors have said.
The arrest affidavit citing these findings pointed to a theory by the medical examiner that Wone appeared to have been immobilized by a paralytic drug, which likely prevented him from moving during a violent stabbing attack. The autopsy also found several needle marks on Wone’s body that were inflicted before he died, further pointing to the possible injection of a powerful drug before the stabbing.
Yet another autopsy finding of semen in and around Wone’s genital area and rectum prompted prosecutors to initially assert that Wone had been sexually assaulted at the time of the murder.
All of this, prosecutors said, made it clear that Wone could not have been murdered by a burglar or home intruder who entered the house, stabbed Wone and quickly fled.
The defense, however, has argued in pre-trial hearings that the paralytic drug theory should not be introduced as evidence because no such drug could be detected in Wone’s body from chemical tests. The defense also argued that semen is normally found to be secreted when men die and that the government failed to present any evidence that Wone had been sexually assaulted or restrained at the time of the murder.
Instead, defense attorneys announced they plan to call a controversial cardiologist as a witness who will testify that a stab wound to the heart can instantly stop the heart and immobilize the person stabbed. This development, defense attorneys have said, would explain why Wone didn’t move or recoil when stabbed two more times.
The defense said it would also present expert witnesses who will claim the bleeding in Wone’s case was mostly internal, explaining why the crime scene lacked large quantities of blood.
Agreeing with the defense that the government failed to produce sufficient evidence that a paralytic drug was administered, and that Wone was sexually assaulted or restrained by S&M sex devices, Leibovitz either ruled against admission of these theories or persuaded prosecutors not to bring them up at trial.
Kirschner has said the government’s case nevertheless remains strong.
With no evidence of a forced entry, no evidence that anything was taken from the house and no signs that anything was disturbed or disrupted, he has said prosecutors will call on the jury to conclude that an intruder or burglar could not have killed Wone and that the defendants had to know who was responsible for the murder — even if the government doesn’t have sufficient evidence to charge anyone with Wone’s death.
But in a comment at one of the recent pre-trial hearings, lead defense attorney David Schertler called the reasoning “ridiculous,” saying people are killed in the city “all the time” by home invaders and during botched burglaries.
“All you have to do is read the newspapers,” he said.
District of Columbia
Gay candidate running for D.C. congressional delegate seat
Robert Matthews among 19 hoping to replace Eleanor Holmes Norton
Robert Matthews, a former director of the D.C. Child and Family Services Agency, is running in the city’s June 16 Democratic primary for the D.C. Congressional Delegate seat as an openly gay candidate, according to a statement released by his campaign to the Washington Blade.
Matthews is one of at least 19 candidates running to replace longtime D.C. Congressional Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D), who announced earlier this year that she is not running for re-election.
Information about the candidates’ campaign financing compiled by the Federal Elections Commission, which oversees elections for federal candidates, shows that Matthews is one of only six of the candidates who have raised any money for their campaigns as of March 17.
Among those six, who political observers say have a shot at winning compared to the remaining 13, are D.C. Council members Brooke Pinto (D-Ward 2) and Robert White (D-At-Large). Both have longstanding records of support for LGBTQ rights and the community.
The FEC campaign finance records show Matthews was in fourth place regarding the money raised for his campaign, which was $49,078 as of March 17. The FEC records show Pinto’s campaign in first place with $843,496 raised, and White in third place with $230,399 raised.
The Matthews campaign statement released to the Blade says Matthews’s “commitment to the LGBTQ community is not a campaign position. It is the foundation of his life and his life’s work.”
The statement adds, “As the former director of D.C.’s Child and Family Services Agency, Robert led the District’s child welfare system with an explicit commitment to LGBTQ-affirming care.” It goes on to say, “He ensured that LGBTQ, trans, and nonbinary youth in foster care — among the most vulnerable young people in our city — were served with dignity, cultural humility, and genuine support.”
Among his priorities if elected as Congressional delegate, the statement says, would be “fighting to end homelessness among queer and trans seniors and youth,” opposing “federal roadblocks” to LGBTQ related health services, and defending D.C.’s budget and civil rights laws “from federal interference that directly threatens LGBTQ residents.”
The other three candidates who the FEC records show have raised campaign funds and observers say have a shot at winning are:
• Kinney Zalesne, former deputy national finance chair at the Democratic National Committee and an official at the U.S. Justice Department during the Clinton administration, whose campaign is in second place in fundraising with $593,885 raised.
• Gordon Chaffin, a former congressional staffer whose campaign has raised $17,950.
• Kelly Mikel Williams, a podcast host and candidate for the Congressional Delegate seat in 2022 and 2024, whose 2026 campaign has raised $3,094 as of March 17.
The Blade reached out to the Zelesne, Chaffin, and Williams campaigns to determine their position on LGBTQ issues. As of late Wednesday, the Zelesne campaign was the only one that responded.
“Kinney believes LGBTQ rights are fundamental civil rights and central to what makes Washington, D.C. a strong and vibrant community,” a statement sent by her campaign says. “At a time when LGBTQ people (especially transgender and nonbinary neighbors) are facing escalating political attacks across the country, she believes the District must continue to lead in protecting dignity, safety, and freedom for all,” it says.
The statement adds, “Throughout her career in government, business, and nonprofit leadership, Kinney has worked alongside LGBTQ and queer advocates and leaders. She is committed to maintaining an active partnership with the community to make sure LGBTQ voices remain central to the District’s future.”
District of Columbia
Man charged with carjacking, kidnapping after having sex in D.C. park pleads guilty
Arrest followed year-long investigation into incident at Fort Dupont Park
A D.C. man initially charged with armed carjacking, armed kidnapping, and armed robbery of a male victim he met and with whom he engaged in sex at D.C.’s Fort Dupont Park in September 2024 pleaded guilty on March 12 to two lesser charges as part of a plea bargain deal offered by prosecutors.
Records filed in D.C. Superior Court show that Da’Andre Pardlow, 31, who has been held in jail since the time of his arrest in December 2025, pleaded guilty to unarmed carjacking and possession of a firearm during a crime of violence. Court records show the agreement includes a recommendation by prosecutors that Pardlow be sentenced to seven years in prison.
The agreement allows him to withdraw the guilty plea if the judge rejects the sentencing recommendation and calls for a harsher sentence. He is scheduled to be sentenced by Superior Court Judge Robert Salermo on May 29.
Details of the incident that led to Pardlow’s arrest and guilty plea are included in a 12-page arrest affidavit prepared by U.S. Park Police detective Christopher Edmund, the lead investigator in the case.
According to the affidavit, which is part of the public court records, Park Police received a call at approximately 6:30 a.m. on Sept. 13, 2024, regarding an armed robbery that occurred around 3 a.m. that day at D.C.’s Fort Dupont Park. The affidavit says Park Police officers drove the person who called, who is identified only as Victim 1 or V-1, from his residence to the Park Police Anacostia Operations facility where he was interviewed.
“V-1 reported that they were at their residence at approximately 2:30 a.m. on September 13, 2024, and decided to drive to Fort Dupont Park in hopes of meeting a man for a sexual encounter,” the affidavit states. “V-1 arrived at Fort Dupont Park at approximately 3:00 a.m. and parked their vehicle on the south side of Alabama Avenue, SE, in Washington, D.C. adjacent to the park entrance,” the affidavit continues.
It says the victim stated the park was empty and he decided to leave, but while walking back to his car he encountered a black male appearing in his 20s or 30s and gave a full description of the man’s appearance and clothing, saying he was wearing a ski mask.
“V-1 and the male conversed and agreed to engage in consensual sexual acts on a bench under the pavilion near the restroom,” the affidavit says. It says V-1 then told detectives that the man, who is initially identified only as Suspect 1 or S-1, “had ejaculated onto V-1’s face. V-1 then used a napkin that he found on the ground nearby to wipe S-1’s semen from V-1’s face. V-1 then discarded the napkin on the ground.”
The affidavit states that investigators later recovered the napkin and through DNA testing linked the semen to Pardlow. But prior to that, it says during their sexual encounter in the park V-1 agreed to suspect 1’s request that he take off all his clothes.
“When V-1 disrobed, S-1 got behind V-1 and held a hard, metal item that V-1 believed to be a handgun, to the back of V-1’s head,” according to the affidavit. It says V-1 added that S-1 “threatened to shoot him ‘over and over again’” if he did not comply with S-1’s demands to surrender his phone and wallet, provide the code to access the phone, and then to take possession of and drive V-1’s car to a nearby bank, with V-1 sitting in the passenger’s seat, to withdraw money from V-1’s bank account. The affidavit says he withdrew $500 from V-1’s account at a Bank of America ATM at 3821 Minnesotta Ave., NE.
“S-1 then drove V-1 back to the park and told them to get their clothes, which were still in the pavilion area,” the affidavit says. “When V-1 exited the vehicle, S-1 drove out of the park in V-1’s vehicle at a high rate of speed toward Massachusetts Avenue,” it says. “V-1 walked back to their residence and contacted the police.”
The affidavit says that over the course of the next several months investigators used tracking devices linked to V-1’s car, cell phone, and Apple Watch that Pardlow had taken to locate the car and a residence where Pardlow was possibly living.
The Park Police investigators also pulled up FBI DNA records to identify a suspect that matched the DNA sample taken from the napkin V1 used at the park to a man arrested in Prince George’s County, Md., on an unrelated charge of Use of a Firearm In A Violent Felony. That person turned out to be Da’Andre Pardlow, the affidavit states.
It says investigators obtained additional evidence linking Pardlow to the park incident involving V-1, including video images of his face from a Bank of America security camera at the time he withdraws money from V-1’s ATM account. A tracking of Pardlow’s own mobile phone also placed him at the site of the park at the time of his alleged interaction with V-1.
When Park Police detectives first interviewed Pardlow at the Eastern Correctional Institute prison in Westover, Md., where he was being held in connection with the unrelated firearm arrest, “he denied having ever been to Fort Dupont Park since he was in high school and said that he had no involvement in this incident,” the affidavit says.
Court records show a warrant was obtained for his arrest on Nov. 25, 2025, for the Fort Dupont incident and he was officially charged on Dec. 17, 2025, with Armed Carjacking, Robbery While Armed, and Kidnapping While Armed.
Pardlow’s attorney, Patrick Nowak, couldn’t immediately be reached for comment on Pardlow’s decision to plead guilty to the lesser charges of Unarmed Carjacking and Possession of a Firearm During A Crime of Violence, with the other charges being dropped by prosecutors with the Office of the U.S. Attorney for D.C.
District of Columbia
D.C. journalist, video producer Sean Bartel dies at 48
Beloved member of Gay Flag Football League found deceased on hiking trail in Argentina
Sean Christopher Bartel, 48, who began his career as a television news reporter and news anchor at stations in Louisville, Ky., and Evansville, Ind., before serving as Senior Video Producer for the D.C.-based International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union from 2013 to 2024, was found deceased on a hiking trail near a glacier in Argentina on or around March 15, according to a report by an Argentine newspaper.
The newspaper Clarín reports no foul play was suspected regarding his death, and other local media reports indicate authorities believe he suffered some sort of accident while on the hiking trail.
The Clarín report says Bartel arrived in Argentina on March 3 and visited Buenos Aires and the city of El Chaltén, which is near Argentina’s Los Glaciares National Park and a glacial lagoon popular with hikers. It says his body was found on the trail leading to the glacier.
“The D.C. Gay Flag Football League is heartbroken to learn of the passing of Sean Bartel, one of the most devoted members this league has ever known,” the organization said in a statement. “The story of DCGFFL could not be told without Sean.”
“He was not only a dedicated teammate and a model league member – he was our storyteller and our champion, honoring the competitive greatness, the radiant humor, and the beautiful bonds that make our community so special,” the statement says.
It adds that for years, Bartel served as “our man behind the camera, he drew our community tighter by portraying us with the skill of a professional and the care of a family member.”
Bartel’s LinkedIn page shows he most recently worked for 12 years as Senior Video Producer for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, which is described as North America’s largest labor union.
Matt Spense, a spokesperson for the union, told the Washington Blade that Bartel resigned from his job there in 2024 to pursue other career endeavors, but he didn’t know what he did career wise after that time.
Bartel’s LinkedIn page shows he served as a video producer and account supervisor at the Edelman global communications firm based in D.C. from 2010-2013. Prior to that, he worked as a reporter for Sirius XM Radio, Inc. from 2007 to 2012. It shows that from a little over a year — from 2009 to 2010 — he worked as video producer and account executive for the firm North Ridge Communications, but it doesn’t give the company’s location.
He began his career in journalism, his LinkedIn page shows, as a reporter and news and sports anchor at the WHAS TV station in Louisville, Ky., from January 2005 through January 2008.
It says he received a bachelor’s degree in Sports Marketeing and Management in 1999 from Indiana University in Bloomington and a master’s degree from the School of Media and Public Affairs from D.C.’s George Washington University in 2010.
The Blade couldn’t immediately obtain information about surviving family members or funeral arrangements.
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