Maryland authorities say professional cornhole player Dayton James Webber was arrested in Virginia after a 27-year-old man was shot to death in a car in La Plata, with investigators alleging the driver fled and the victim was later found in nearby Charlotte Hall.
The case quickly drew attention beyond southern Maryland because Webber is a known competitor in cornhole and had previously been featured in national stories about surviving a severe infection as an infant and building a public athletic career. But the criminal case itself remains at an early stage. Charles County investigators say Webber is being held in Virginia as Maryland seeks his extradition, and officials say he will face first-degree murder, second-degree murder and related charges once he is returned. By late Monday, investigators had not publicly identified a motive, a defense lawyer or a Maryland court date.
According to the Charles County Sheriff’s Office, the case began at 10:25 p.m. Sunday when two people flagged down La Plata police officers near La Plata Road and Radio Station Road. Investigators said the witnesses had been sitting in the back seat of a car driven by Webber when an argument broke out with the front-seat passenger, Bradrick Michael Wells of Waldorf. Detectives say Webber shot Wells during that argument while still behind the wheel. The car then pulled over near Radio Station Road and Llano Drive, where officers say Webber asked the other passengers to help remove Wells from the vehicle. They refused, investigators said, got out and left the scene. Speaking to 7News, sheriff’s office spokesperson Diane Richardson said detectives believe the confrontation escalated quickly. “We don’t know what the argument was about,” she said, adding that investigators hope to learn more as interviews continue.
The next part of the timeline unfolded in fragments over roughly two hours. Charles County patrol officers began canvassing the area for possible routes and locations where the driver might have gone, according to the sheriff’s office. Then, nearly two hours after police were first stopped on the roadside, a resident in the 10000 block of Newport Church Road in Charlotte Hall called 911 to report a body in a yard. Officers responded and found Wells there. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Authorities have not said publicly whether the shooting happened instantly before the car stopped, whether any other weapon or evidence was recovered from the vehicle, or what forensic evidence was collected between the La Plata stop and the discovery in Charlotte Hall. They also have not said whether the passengers who flagged down police had been interviewed more than once by Monday night. What investigators have said is that everyone in the car knew one another before the shooting and that the case remains active.
By the time Wells’ body was discovered, the search had already widened beyond Charles County. The sheriff’s office said detectives obtained an arrest warrant for Webber and later found his vehicle in Charlottesville, Virginia, more than 100 miles from where the victim was found. Authorities said Webber was located at a nearby hospital, where he had gone for treatment for what police described only as a medical issue. After he was released, officers with the Albemarle County Police Department arrested him on a fugitive from justice charge. Officials have not publicly described what medical issue brought him to the hospital, whether he made any statements to police there or whether additional evidence was recovered from the vehicle in Virginia. They also had not publicly named an attorney for Webber by Monday night. Those missing details leave large parts of the case outside public view even as the central allegation has been laid out in unusually stark terms by investigators.
The homicide allegation collided with a public profile that many sports fans already knew. Webber had drawn national attention for his cornhole career and for the way he spoke openly about life after doctors amputated his arms and legs when he was 10 months old to save him from a life-threatening blood infection. In a 2023 essay discussed by The Associated Press, Webber said his medical team had given him a 3% chance of survival as an infant. He later became known in the American Cornhole League and was featured in stories that focused on competition, independence and routine tasks many people assumed he could not do. That background helps explain why the case spread so quickly online Monday, but it does not alter the legal questions in front of investigators. Richardson told 7News that when people asked how Webber could have handled a firearm or driven a car, she pointed them to publicly available videos and past coverage, saying he was “a well-documented individual.” The immediate criminal question, however, is not capability in the abstract. It is what happened inside that car and why.
The legal process now turns on extradition and the formal filing of charges in Maryland. The sheriff’s office said Charles County is seeking Webber’s return from Virginia and intends to charge him with first-degree murder, second-degree murder and other related offenses. That means the case is still in the transition between the initial arrest and the beginning of a Maryland court fight over evidence, intent and pretrial detention. Officials have not publicly announced when Webber will appear in a Maryland courtroom, whether prosecutors will pursue additional counts tied to the alleged transport or disposal of the body, or when charging papers laying out probable cause in fuller detail will be released. Those records often become the first fuller public account in a homicide case, and in this one they may answer several questions that remain open, including where exactly inside the vehicle Wells was struck, what witness statements say about the moments before the gunfire and whether investigators have identified a clear motive. Until then, the public record remains mostly a police timeline.
The case also left two communities reacting at once: the local neighborhoods touched by the crime scene and the sports world that knew Webber for a very different reason. In La Plata and Charlotte Hall, the known facts are severe and simple: a roadside plea for help, a body in a yard and a suspect found across state lines before sunrise had fully given way to daylight. In the cornhole world, the American Cornhole League acknowledged the allegations Monday and said it would not comment on what it described as an active legal matter while proceedings continue. That short statement was one of the few public reactions from organizations tied to Webber’s athletic career. No comparable public statement from Wells’ relatives was widely available by Monday night, and officials had not described the history of Wells’ relationship with Webber beyond saying all four people in the car knew one another. For now, the public narrative is being built almost entirely from law enforcement statements, witness accounts relayed by police and the defendant’s unusually visible athletic background.
As of Monday night, Webber was being held in Virginia on the fugitive case while Charles County pursued his extradition. The next public milestone is his transfer back to Maryland, where prosecutors say they will file murder and related charges and the case will move into its first court hearings.
Author note: Last updated March 23, 2026.