A Dundalk teenager charged with killing a 16-year-old boy in what police call a “random act” pleaded guilty Wednesday to first-degree murder and will face up to 60 years in prison.
His dirty-blond hair cut short, William Russell Ferandes, 17, showed little emotion as he admitted to killing Joshua Gibson, 16, in January.
Andrew Alperstein, Ferandes’ attorney, called the murder a tragedy.
“It’s a sad case when a child kills another child,” he said.
Two of Ferandes’ co-defendants — Robert Louis Bragg, 18, and Robert Lee Wood, 19, both of Dundalk — pleaded guilty to second-degree assault and related charges in the crime.
Shortly before 9:30 p.m. Jan. 28, Bragg, Wood and Ferandes were driving around and came upon Gibson walking near Church and Searles roads, police said.
According to an agreed-upon statement of facts in the case, Wood began punching Gibson, while Ferandes pulled out a gun and fired three shots at the teen. The first shot missed Gibson, but the next shots struck him in the back, killing him.
“There was no other reason for choosing him other than the fact he was there at the time,” said prosecutor Jason League. The teens did not know each other.
Gibson’s mother, Michele, said the boy was a student at Dundalk High School. He played baseball, participated in Boy Scouts, and helped his mom with his younger sister.
“He was a good kid,” Michele Gibson said. “He didn’t deserve this.”
Ferandes is one of three juveniles charged with first-degree murder this year in Baltimore County.
He shares a cell at the Baltimore County Detention Center with Cockeysville teen Nicholas Browning, 16, who has pleaded guilty to murdering his parents and two brothers in February.
Another teen, Towson resident Lewin Powell, 16, is charged with murdering his mother and attempting to kill his father in May.
As Ferandes left the courtroom, Judge Patrick Cavanaugh told the teen he should be thankful for a sentence of less than life in prison without the possibility of parole — which prosecutors were initially seeking.
Sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 23.
“Your lawyer did an excellent job for you,” the judge said of the plea deal. “You were looking at a much longer sentence.”
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