Tara Adams Ragone, an old friend of murdered D.C. attorney Robert Wone, testified Wednesday about phone conversations she had with suspect Joe Price in the aftermath of Wone’s mysterious 2006 death.

Price and his Dupont Circle housemates Dylan Ward and Victor Zaborsky, stand accused of conspiracy, obstruction of justice and tampering with evidence in connection to Wone’s killing.

“I hate that I’m having the questions that I’m having—but I have questions,” Ragone recalled saying to Price during an Aug. 18, 2006, chat. “If the scene was tampered with,” she later added, “I’d have a big problem with that.”

To which, Ragone recalled Price saying, “There’s a difference between tampering with a crime scene and wiping away blood because you’re freaking out.”

Prosecuting attorney Glenn Kirschner asked Ragone to describe another conversation, which occured four days after Wone’s murder on Aug. 2, 2006. Ragone said Price was complaining about how police officers weren’t processing the crime scene correctly, touching door knobs and such. Price had noted, in particular, that a glass on the kitchen counter had been overlooked entirely, she said.

Ragone also recalled Price venting about how police had so casually stopped at 7-11 en route to question him at the station that night while his friend’s killer was still at large. Price and his fellow defendants have maintained that an unknown intruder broke into the house at 1509 Swann Street NW and killed their friend.

Several times during Ragone’s testimony, Judge Lynn Leibovitz advised the gushing witness to slow down so the court reporter could keep up.

On cross-examination, defense attorney Bernie Grimm asked whether Ragone had been keeping up with “the blog” and other news articles on the case. Ragone said yes.

Staff photo by Alex Burchfield and Kim Chi Ha