The self-professed killer who said he shot a Murrysville businessman as they traveled in a truck along a Butler County highway calmly described to a jury in chilling detail Thursday how he carried out the murder.
Braden Elliott said he pulled a revolver from his waistband, put the barrel two inches behind the victim’s head and pulled the trigger.
Then, he testified, he texted William Fortuna, “Got it done.”
Elliott, 22, of Chicora, Butler County, spent more than four hours on the witness stand Thursday testifying against Fortuna, whose trial began this week before Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Jill E. Rangos.
Both men, along with Elliott’s uncle, Jeremy Fisher, are charged with criminal homicide and conspiracy in the Dec. 27, 2023, shooting death of George Dayieb.
Police said the three conspired to kill Dayieb because Fisher owed Dayieb $400,000 for an excavator he purchased.
Fortuna is accused of providing the gun Elliott used, fixing it when it wouldn’t fire and then getting rid of evidence in the truck, police said.
Fortuna’s attorney, Stephen Colafella, told the jury during his opening statement Monday that his client was not aware Dayieb would be killed that day.
The prosecution rested Thursday afternoon, and Fortuna told the court he intends to testify when the defense begins its case on Friday.
Under pressure?
Elliott, who was escorted to court by Allegheny County homicide detectives because he is being held pending trial, testified with the assistance of two American Sign Language interpreters.
Elliott told the jury he has cochlear implants and has difficulty hearing.
During his testimony, Elliott said his uncle asked him on Dec. 26, 2023, if he would kill Dayieb for him.
“I said no, I don’t want to,” he testified.
Later that day, Fisher and Elliott went to Fortuna’s house, and Fisher told Elliott to wait in the truck for several minutes before inviting him inside. At some point, he continued, Fisher asked Elliott to kill Dayieb again, and again, he said no.
But the next morning, Elliott testified, Fisher offered to give his nephew an F-350 pickup, promised Elliott he wouldn’t get caught and told him he would get rid of the body.
“I got frustrated, so I said all right,” the witness said.
Later, he added, “my uncle, he was pressuring, pressuring me.
“My uncle forced me to do it.”
Elliott, however, could not answer the question asked repeatedly by Colafella as to how Fisher pressured him.
“I didn’t want to upset him. I didn’t want to do it. I don’t like hurting people,” he responded.
Killer codes
Once he agreed to carry out the killing, Elliott told the jury, Fisher took the passenger side headrest out of his truck and put a moving blanket over the seat where Dayieb would sit.
They drove to a nearby gas station and met Fortuna. Fisher got in Fortuna’s truck for a few minutes, Elliott said, and when he returned, handed Elliott a gun.
Then about 10:15 a.m., they picked up Dayieb, who police said thought Fisher was going to pay him that day.
Elliott described to the jury Fisher’s plan for killing Dayieb. His uncle told him to shoot as they drove and while no other cars were around, the witness said. He also instructed Elliott to communicate via text message using coded language.
He was to use “pipe” to mean Dayieb’s body, and “nail gun” to refer to the revolver, Elliott said.
While Fisher drove on the Pennsylvania Turnpike with Fortuna following them in his own truck, he continued, Elliott pulled out the gun and tried to fire it at Dayieb, seated in front of him, but it wouldn’t shoot.
Elliott then texted Fortuna and told him the the nail gun wasn’t working, and Fortuna told them to stop at a gas station.
They pulled in, Elliott continued, and he gave Fortuna the gun to fix and went to the restroom.
“I was really stressed out. I was trying to get myself calmed down,” he said. “Jeremy came in and said everything will be OK. ‘Calm down. You can do it.’ ”
Elliott told his uncle he didn’t want to go through with it and asked to get in the truck with Fortuna, he told the jury.
Fisher told him no and ordered him back in his truck. They continued driving on Route 422. At 11:46 a.m., Fisher texted his nephew “Now.”
Elliott pulled the trigger, he said, killing Dayieb in the front seat.
‘The pipe won’t fit’
A short time later, he said, Fisher pulled over, and Fortuna joined them.
Fisher told his nephew to use a work glove in the truck to get Dayieb’s cell phone and keys off the body and then told Elliott to drive the truck with the body in it to a camp in Clarion County. He told him he’d meet him there, Elliott testified.
But, Elliott said, Fisher never did.
Instead, after about 90 minutes, Elliott began communicating with Fortuna.
“Bill said, ‘keep covering up the pipe for now,’” Elliott said.
And Elliott responded “The pipe won’t fit in the back of the truck. I said I could put it in the camper.”
Elliott described dragging Dayieb out of the truck and trying to lift the body by Dayieb’s belt and breaking it.
He finally got Dayieb’s body inside a camper, covered it with pillows and locked the door. But when Elliott tried to move the truck again, it got stuck in the mud.
Fortuna drove to the camp to try to help him get out, but was unsuccessful, so they decided to leave it there until the next day.
They spoke about what happened, Elliott said, and “Bill said, don’t worry about it. We’ll never talk about this again.’”
They returned to Fisher’s house, the witness continued, where his uncle told him to give him his clothes, shower and delete the text messages they exchanged.
The next morning, Elliott said his uncle gave him a note with a cover story he was to memorize if the police approached him. He read the note, which had been inside a sealed evidence envelope, to the jury.
Doing the right thing
Later that day, Elliott testified, he and Fortuna drove back to the camp with an excavator to dig Fisher’s truck out. Throughout the drive to Clarion, he said, there was no discussion about Dayieb’s death.
Once the truck was freed, he continued, Fortuna buried the moving blanket that had protected the seat where Dayieb was killed, and the two men left, stopping at a truck wash to clean their vehicles.
During Elliott’s testimony, the prosecution played videos from the various gas stations where the three men met that morning, as well as at the truck wash the next day.
Elliott told the jury the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office is allowing him to plead guilty to third-degree murder, with no agreement on the potential sentence, in exchange for his testimony against Fisher and Fortuna.
“It was the right thing for myself, and I wanted to do the right thing,” Elliott said on cross-examination.
During cross, Colafella went after Elliott hard on whether he ever heard Fortuna and Fisher planning the murder.
“They were talking. I didn’t know anything about what they said,” Elliott said.
“Did you see Bill Fortuna give Jeremy a gun?” Colafella asked.
“No,” Elliott answered.
“You just know you got a gun from your uncle?” the attorney continued.
“Yeah.”