A Waldorf man was sentenced Friday to 45 years in prison for killing a D.C. cab driver.
Joshua Mebane and his then-girlfriend, Linda Bury, then both 17, had been dating for less than a week in 2012 when they hailed a taxi in Northeast D.C. with the intention of robbing the driver, authorities said.
Prosecutors say Mebane made Muhammad Quadeer, 44, drive them to a nearby school, where Mebane shot the driver in the head.
Mebane was found guilty in September.
Bury pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in May 2014 and testified against Mebane during the week-long trial.
According to a court document, she initially told police that she and Mebane were in a car accident with the driver.
However, she later said that they were staying at a Motel 6 when they decided they needed money, walked to the Greyhound bus station and hailed a cab. Mebane allegedly told the driver to take them behind Hamilton Junior High School near their hotel. He also asked the driver if he could break a $50 bill, and the driver said he could, Bury told police.
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When they arrived, Mebane put on a black latex glove and shot the driver in the back of the head with a 9 mm pistol, Bury told police. The car then accelerated and crashed into a tree Bury said. Police found the car burning in the 1400 block of Brentwood Parkway NE, with the driver's body still inside.
Authorities received tips that ultimately led them to Bury and Mebane, after Bury allegedly told someone that she and her boyfriend robbed a cab driver. The two looked up an online story about the incident together.
Bury and Mebane met online in October 2012 and decided to run away together, according to prosecutors.
A coworker of the victim said of his colleague, "He was a nice person, a nice gentlemen. He was very serious about his work. He never had any problems, anything like that."
