Man pleads guilty to shooting couple in 2012

Victims were walking their dog in Waldorf neighborhood

Prosecutors say a Wal- dorf man accused of shooting a Waldorf couple, killing one, as they walked through their neighborhood in 2012, pleaded guilty in Charles County Circuit Court on Tuesday.

Joshua Terrell Mebane, 21, pled guilty to first-degree murder and attempted murder for shooting Teresa Bass, who died, and her husband, Jerry Bass Jr., as they walked their dog

in the Hampshire neighborhood in Waldorf.

On the evening of Oct. 26, 2012, officers working security at a nearby Westlake High School football game heard several gunshots and responded to the scene within a minute, where they found the couple that had been shot, ac- cording to a press release. Both were taken to the hospital, but Teresa later died from her injuries. Jerry, who had been shot numerous times in the back, was at one point listed in critical condition, but he sur- vived.

After his arraignment two months ago, Charles County State’s Attorney Anthony Covington (D) said the shooting was “terrifying to the com- munity,” and that there was seemingly no motive behind it and no evidence of a robbery.

The reason it took so long for Mebane to be brought to Charles County, Covington ex- plained, was because he was being tried in Washington, D.C., for fatally shooting a taxi driver.

Authorities say Mebane was developed as a suspect in the Bass shootings while police investigated the murder of Quadar Muhammad, 44, of Washington, D.C., who was fatally shot on Nov. 7, 2012.

In investigating the death of Muhammad, police learned that Mebane and Linda Bury, who were both 17 years old at the time, had run away together and stayed at a motel in the District, according to a U.S. Department of Justice press release. As the two teenagers ran low on money, they decided to rob a taxi driver.

Just before 9 p.m., Mebane and Bury hailed a taxi cab and instructed Muhammad to drive them to the rear of Ham- ilton Junior High School in the 1400 block of Brentwood Park, N.E., the press release states. Then, Mebane put on a black latex glove, pulled out a 9mm handgun and shot Muhammad once in the back of the head.

Bury later told investi- gators that Mebane had bragged about the Bass shooting and had shown her online news stories about the incident, ac- cording to a Washington Post report.

In September 2015, a jur y found Mebane guilty of first-degree murder and other charges for Muhammad’s death, and he was sentenced to 45 years imprisonment the following month. Bury, who pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, was sentenced to six years, per court records.

After he was sentenced for killing the taxi driver, Mebane spent time at a federal penitentiary before he was extradited to Charles County in September, a press release states. Mebane, facing two life sentences plus 20 years, is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 6.