Both sides agree Dayton Webber shot Bradrick Wells, but they sharply disagree on what happened inside the vehicle and what the law will allow.
LA PLATA, Md. — The homicide case against Dayton James Webber has narrowed to a stark dispute: prosecutors say he killed Bradrick Michael Wells and then dumped his body, while defense lawyers say Webber fired only because he believed Wells was about to kill him.
That conflict now sits at the center of a first-degree murder case after a Charles County grand jury indicted Webber last week. It is also the reason the matter has drawn such close attention. The basic act is not the main point of disagreement in public statements. The fight is over motive, threat, fear and whether the evidence can support a legal claim of self-defense in a shooting that prosecutors say ended with a body left in a yard.
Defense lawyers first laid out their position during an April 1 bail hearing, when attorney Andrew Jezic told the court that Webber had acted immediately to save his own life. Another defense attorney, Hammad Matin, later summarized the case as one in which his client “had to kill or be killed.” In court and in public statements, the defense has said Wells threatened Webber and that the people in the vehicle feared him. Prosecutors have answered that the evidence points the other way. Karen Piper Mitchell, a deputy state’s attorney, said after the indictment that investigators had seen no evidence supporting self-defense. She has also stressed that both sides agree Webber shot Wells. In other words, the upcoming court fight is likely to be less about identity than about state of mind, witness credibility and the sequence of events in the seconds before the gunfire.
Some of what happened has been laid out in charging documents and open court. Authorities say Webber was driving in La Plata on March 22 with Wells in the front passenger seat and two other passengers in the back. Witnesses told investigators that a heated argument broke out. Prosecutors have said the dispute involved a gun allegedly stolen from Webber by a friend of Wells and Webber’s anger that Wells was still close to that person. Court records and statements also show that Wells was later found with apparent gunshot wounds to the head. But some potentially important evidence remains outside public view. Authorities have not said whether cameras from the Tesla recorded any of the encounter, whether any self-driving features were in use, or what forensic findings may already support or undermine the competing accounts. That gap leaves public understanding incomplete even as the legal positions harden.
The prosecution’s account of what followed the shooting is one reason the self-defense claim faces early skepticism. According to investigators, Webber stopped the vehicle after Wells was shot and asked the two backseat passengers to help move the body. They refused, got out and flagged down police near 10:30 p.m. Webber then drove off with Wells still inside the vehicle, authorities say. Nearly two hours later, a resident on Newport Church Road in Charlotte Hall reported a body in a yard. Officers found Wells there. Detectives later tracked Webber’s vehicle to Charlottesville, Virginia, and located him at a hospital before arresting him as a fugitive from justice. Prosecutors highlighted his departure from Maryland when arguing he should remain jailed, and the judge agreed to hold him without bond. That alleged post-shooting conduct is likely to become part of the state’s effort to challenge the defense narrative.
The indictment announced Monday adds six charges to the public record: first-degree murder, use of a firearm in a violent crime, two counts of reckless endangerment and two loaded-handgun-in-a-vehicle counts. Prosecutors say the grand jury approved those charges April 10, moving the case into Charles County Circuit Court. The defense has said it expects a lengthy trial. That expectation makes sense given the issues already visible from the outside. Jurors may eventually hear from the surviving passengers, from investigators who traced the route from La Plata to Charlotte Hall and Charlottesville, and from experts on firearm evidence, injury patterns and whatever digital evidence exists from the vehicle or phones. They may also hear how far earlier tensions between Webber and Wells go. Prosecutors have referenced a 2024 dispute at Webber’s home in which a shot was fired as Wells was leaving. The defense has said that shot was into the air.
The case carries an unusual level of public attention because Webber was known before his arrest as a quadruple amputee athlete whose cornhole career had made him a familiar figure in human-interest coverage. That background may explain why the case spread quickly, but it does not answer the legal question now in front of the court. Wells’ family has publicly rejected the self-defense theory, and the American Cornhole League has said only that the allegations are extremely serious and that its thoughts are with those affected. In the months ahead, the public story may continue to orbit Webber’s biography. The courtroom story, however, is likely to turn on a narrower issue: whether the evidence shows imminent danger or an unjustified killing followed by a frantic attempt to dispose of a body.
Webber remains jailed without bond, and the next major milestone is the setting of circuit court dates after the indictment approved April 10 and announced April 13.
Author note: Last updated April 14, 2026.