PITTSBURGH — The man police say shot and killed a 57-year-old Murrysville man in December testified Friday, Feb. 16, at the preliminary hearing of his two co-defendants in Pittsburgh Municipal Court.

Braden Elliott, 20, of Chicora, testified at a hearing lasting three and a half hours about the Dec. 27 death of George Dayieb. He and Jeremy Fisher, 41, of Coraopolis, and William Fortuna, 58, of Conway, have been charged with homicide, conspiracy to commit homicide, conspiracy to use a communication facility, conspiracy to tamper with evidence and abuse of a corpse.

Elliott waived his preliminary hearing and was arraigned Feb. 9.

At Friday's preliminary hearing, Elliott testified Fisher, his uncle, asked him several times on Dec. 26 to kill Dayieb but said he at first refused.

“I said I wouldn't do this because I have a future ahead of me,” he said.

He testified he agreed the next day, saying he'd done so because he hadn't taken medicine to treat his ADHD and therefore wasn't thinking clearly. He also said he was promised a Ford F-350 pickup truck if he agreed.

Elliott 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 Ram 5500 work truck they were using and told Elliott to sit behind the passenger seat, where Dayieb would be sitting.

While driving toward Butler, Elliott pulled the trigger on the revolver, but it didn't fire. He testified Friday he tried to get Fisher's attention and then texted both Fisher and Fortuna about the problem.

Fisher later stopped at a gas station on Route 422 near Prospect where Elliott got out and gave the gun to Fortuna, who had been following them in his own pickup. Elliott testified he used the restroom and when he was done, Fortuna gave him back the gun.

The three men left the gas station, and Fisher texted Elliott “now,” Elliott testified. He said he waited a second and then shot Dayieb in the back of the head.

“He just passed out,” Elliott said. “He died.”

Elliott testified he reclined the front passenger seat so no one would notice Dayieb's body.

After the killing, Elliott drove Fisher's work truck, with Dayieb's body still inside, to a property in Clarion County and hid it in a travel trailer on the property. He testified he expected Fisher and Fortuna to follow him and help with moving the body, but they didn't come.

Because the ground was wet from rain, Elliott got the Ram 5500 truck stuck in the mud and eventually got Fortuna to come out to the property and give him a ride to Fisher's house.

When they got there, Elliott showered and gave the clothes he'd been wearing to Fortuna.

Wendy Williams, Fisher's attorney, cross examined Elliott and asked whether he'd been promised leniency in return for testifying. He said he had not.

Stephen Colafella, Fortuna's attorney, asked whether Fortuna ever was in the truck with Fisher, Dayieb and Elliott. Elliott said he was not, and said Fortuna also hadn't helped move the body or gone inside the trailer where the body was hidden.

Steven Hitchings, a homicide detective with the Allegheny County Police and lead investigator in the case, testified Friday Dayieb's girlfriend told him Fisher owed Dayieb $400,000 and Dayieb had gone to see Fisher on Dec. 27 to talk about the money owed.

Hitchings said when he spoke with Fisher about Dayieb, Fisher told him Dayieb actually owed money to “shady people” and Dayieb didn't want his girlfriend to know about that, so he told her Fisher owed him the money.

Fisher also gave Hitchings paperwork indicating he'd given Dayieb more than $600,000 in November, but Hitchings said he didn't believe that was true, in part because one person whose signature is on the document denied signing it.

During cross-examination, Williams asked whether police had looked into who Dayieb might have owed money. Hitchings said he'd spoken to Dayieb’s girlfriend, who was also the bookkeeper for Dayieb's business, and she'd told him about the money Fisher owed to Dayieb.

Nicole DePauli, also a detective with the Allegheny County Police, testified about text messages between Fisher and Fortuna on the day of the killing.

Between Elliott's first, failed attempt to shoot Dayieb and the time the group stopped at the gas station on 422, Fisher told Fortuna he'd need “the other one,” to which Fortuna replied he only had his .38, DePauli testified.

“Has to happen,” Fisher texted Fortuna at one point.

District Judge Michele K. Santicola ordered all charges against both Fisher and Fortuna held for trial. A formal arraignment is scheduled for March 18.