State v. Joshua Terrell Mebane, K13-51
LA PLATA, MD—Tony Covington, State’s Attorney for Charles County announced that on Tuesday, December 20, 2016, Joshua Terrell Mebane, 22, entered a guilty plea in front of Charles County Circuit Court Judge Amy J. Bragunier to First Degree Murder of Teresa Bass, Attempted Murder of Jerry Bass Jr., and Unlawful use of a Hand Gun in the Commission of a Crime of Violence Related to the First Degree Murder of Teresa Bass.
In 2012, Mebane was charged with the first-degree murder of Teresa Bass and the Attempted Murder of her husband Jerry Bass Jr. as the couple walked their dog in the Hampshire neighborhood of Waldorf. Officers working security at the Westlake football game that night heard several gunshots and were on the scene within a minute. Teresa Bass was taken by ambulance to Civista Medical Center in La Plata, where she died. Jerry Bass Jr. was flown to an area hospital, where he was at one point listed in critical condition with multiple gunshot wounds to his back.
Mebane was developed as a suspect in the Bass shootings during the investigation of the murder of cab driver Quadar Muhammad, 44, in Washington DC on November 7, 2012. During that investigation Mebane was identified as the shooter of Mr. and Mrs. Bass less than 2 weeks prior to the murder of Mr. Muhammad. Mebane was arrested, charged and convicted of killing Mr. Muhammad.
In November of 2015, Mebane was sentenced to 45 years in prison for that killing. Mebane was housed in the District of Columbia while awaiting trial from 2012 until late last year when he was sent to a federal penitentiary to serve his sentence. Finally he was transported from that federal facility to Charles County.
A sentencing date has been set for January 6, 2017. Mebane faces two life sentence plus 20 years.