William Fortuna

A Conway man will serve life in prison for preparing the gun used to murder a Murraysville contractor along Route 422 in Butler Township before the body was hidden in Clarion County.

William Fortuna, 61, was sentenced to serve life in prison without chance for parole for for his part in the Dec. 27, 2023, murder of 57-year-old George Dayieb.

The sentence was handed down Tuesday, Sept. 29, by Judge Jill E. Rangos in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court.

Fortuna had been found guilty of first-degree murder by a jury earlier this year. At that time, Fortuna was also found guilty of criminal use of communication facility, tampering with/fabricating physical evidence, abuse of corpse and conspiracy - criminal homicide.

In addition to the life sentence, he is facing 15 to 30 years in prison for conspiracy to commit homicide and a year of probation for criminal use of a communication facility. Fortuna was being held at the Allegheny County Jail.

He was charged along with Braden Elliott, 22, of Chicora, and his uncle, Jeremy Fisher, 43, of Coraopolis after police said Dayieb died from a single gunshot wound to the back of his head.

Police said Dayieb, a Murraysville contractor and father, was shot along Route 422 in Butler Township, following a plan developed by the three men. Dayieb’s body was found two days later, Dec. 29, in a trailer in Clarion County.

Homicide detectives opened the investigation after Kennedy Township police in Allegheny County located an unoccupied pickup truck owned by Dayieb’s construction company and learned Dayieb had been reported missing and endangered by Murrysville police.

Detectives were told by Dayieb’s girlfriend that he left their home the morning of Dec. 27 to meet Fisher in Butler County to collect money, which police believe was a motive in the killing. She told police Fisher owed Dayieb $400,000, and said Fisher told Dayieb the money would be wired to him Dec. 26.

The fatal shooting happened along Route 422 in Butler Township after a stop at a Sunoco gas station at 2019 New Castle Road in Muddy Creek Township, where Fortuna fixed and returned a gun to Elliott, according to police.

Police said this happened after the gun had failed to fire in an earlier attempt at shooting Dayieb. Charging documents indicated the men were driving toward Butler on Route 422 when Elliott first attempted the shooting.

Elliott has testified that, on the day of the shooting, Fisher gave him a .38-caliber revolver belonging to Fortuna, removed the headrests from the front seats of a work truck and told Elliott to sit behind the passenger seat, where Dayieb would be sitting.

Elliott has testified that he shot Dayieb in the back of the head after Fisher texted “now” and reclined the front passenger seat so no one would notice Dayieb's body.

Police said the men stopped in the parking lot of a Center Township business and parked behind a dumpster, taking Dayieb’s keys and phone from his pockets before then leaving his body at a camp in Clarion County.

Elliott was charged with homicide and homicide conspiracy, felony criminal use of a communication facility and one misdemeanor count each of abuse of corpse and tampering with evidence. Fisher faces the same charges and was additionally charged with abuse of corpse conspiracy and solicitation of criminal homicide.

Elliot is scheduled for trial March 15, and Fisher’s trial is scheduled for May 3.