A professional cornhole player and quadruple amputee who was arrested last month for allegedly shooting and killing his friend while driving through Southern Maryland has been indicted by a grand jury on a first-degree murder charge, officials said Monday.
Dayton Webber’s attorneys, however, claim he was acting in self-defense.
The indictment, which was returned Friday and filed in Charles County Circuit Court, includes two counts of gun possession charges and two counts of reckless endangerment against Webber, 27.
He is being held at the Charles County Detention Center after he was denied bail.
At a hearing earlier this month his attorneys argued that Webber was trying to defend himself during an incident with his friend, identified as Bradrick Wells, 27.
Hammad Matin, one of Webber’s attorneys, said evidence will prove his client is innocent.
“It’s a situation where the occupants of that car, to include Mr. Webber, are terrified of Mr. Wells,” Matin said at the court hearing, adding that Wells was talking about guns inside the car.
“He was about to be killed and he had to kill,” Matin said.
In a follow-up statement on Monday, Webber’s attorneys said Wells threatened to shoot Webber.
“Dayton was terrified of being murdered,” the statement said. “Dayton did what the law allows.”
Karen Piper Mitchell, deputy state’s attorney in Charles County, said Webber’s guilt is clear.
“One thing that the defense and the state agreed at the bond hearing … is that this is not a question of who,” Piper Mitchell said at a news conference Monday. “Both parties agree that Dayton Webber shot Bradrick Wells. As to the why, that’s where we’re in dispute.”
Authorities say Webber shot and killed Wells on March 22 during an argument while they and two other passengers were inside a Tesla SUV headed through Charles County, with Webber in the driver’s seat. The two other passengers, who were seated in the back, fled and flagged down law enforcement after Webber allegedly asked them to help move the body.
Hours later, Wells was found dead with two apparent gunshot wounds in a homeowner’s yard in Charlotte Hall, Maryland, east of Charles County, charging documents show.
Webber was arrested after receiving medical treatment at a hospital near Charlottesville, about 150 miles west of where the shooting is alleged to have happened. Police did not specify what his medical condition appeared to be.
The Charles County Sheriff’s office said in a press release the same day he was booked in Maryland, that Webber will receive “appropriate accommodations” at the jail in compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act. Piper Mitchell said at the news conference she believed he would have no issue at the jail because “there was nothing unique or special” about the set-up of his two-story home.
Before the shooting, Webber had gained some celebrity as a skilled cornhole player who worked to change how amputees are perceived.
As a child, Webber contracted a life-threatening blood infection. Doctors told his parents he had a 3 percent chance of survival. To slow the infection, his medical team amputated his arms and legs. Eventually, after four months at the hospital, Webber said, he was discharged and went on to have a healthy childhood.
He taught himself to do things that many assumed he could not: write, drive go-karts and eventually cars, wrestle, and play football and games like cornhole.
Webber played professional cornhole with the American Cornhole League for nearly a decade, becoming the first quadruple amputee to compete professionally in the sport. In 2023, he won a cash prize of more than $300 after tying for fifth place in an ACL championship tournament, according to the Cornhole DB website, which bills itself as the premier site for statistics in the sport. That same year, he and a doubles partner won a $75 prize at a different event.
Videos of Webber’s athleticism has been featured on ESPN’s “SportsCenter” and NBC’s “Today” show. But other videos, posted to his personal YouTube account, show Webber firing a 9mm handgun and a .54-caliber rifle.
“He has overcome so much adversity in his life,” Matin, his attorney, said in court earlier this month. “He is kind of an inspiration for a lot of people.”
“I’m not disputing that his life has been an inspiration. I understand that he’s overcome a lot,” Charles County District Judge Patrick Devine responded.
The judge nonetheless ruled Webber should remain in jail, citing two factors: Webber’s leaving the state after the incident and the violent nature of the allegations.
Anita Stewart-Murchison, Wells’s mother, said she was pleased Webber was indicted.
She said her son had known Webber for about 10 years.
“Brad trusted him too much,” Stewart-Murchison said in an interview, adding that her son was shot twice in the back of the head. “Brad did everything he could to help him. Brad was a person who wanted to help everyone in the world.”
She disputed Webber’s attorneys’ claim of self-defense.
“It didn’t happen that way,” she said, saying Webber was 100 percent to blame. “His evilness did it. He caused it to happen.”
Stewart-Murchison said her son had a license to carry a handgun, which caused her to seriously doubt he was armed in that car because he would have been able to defend himself.
“He wouldn’t have let him get to that point,” Stewart-Murchison said.
As for Webber’s attorney’s claim that her son had threatened to shoot Webber in the car, Stewart-Murchison said that hardly sounded like something her son would say. But even if he did, in the heat of an argument, responding with gunfire is hardly justified. “You don’t kill someone over words,” she said.
She said her son and his dad formed a limited liability company together and they bought and sold motorcycles, cars, trucks and boats. Sometimes they fixed them up before reselling and sometimes they’d sell them as is, she said.
Her son had plans to pursue a HVAC career, according to his mom. “Brad loved working with his hands,” Stewart-Murchison said.
He had a deep passion for riding dirt bikes and motocross racing, his mother said.
Since his arrest, Webber has been “isolated,” said Matin, who said he visited him on Sunday.
“Dayton’s a people person, always has been, and this has been very difficult for him just mentally to be in this situation and I know I’m just trying to keep his spirits up,” Matin said.
If convicted, Webber faces between five years to life in prison.
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