FAYETTEVILLE — Police believe a man found dead at an apartment complex Sept. 30 was beaten and left to die by another man who also disposed of evidence linking him to the crime.
David Piedra Osorio, 32, of Fayetteville was arrested Friday in connection with first-degree murder and tampering with physical evidence. Osorio was arrested in connection with the Sept. 30 death of Willie McAway, 49, at an apartment complex at 1557 N. Leverett Ave.
Officers were called about noon Sept. 30 by a witness who found McAway on the floor inside his apartment, according to a police report. Other people nearby showed up and tried to revive McAway without success. Emergency personnel arrived and found McAway dead on the floor with obvious injuries.
Detectives searched the apartment and collected evidence, including a memory card from a motion-sensing surveillance camera pointed outside the front door. Osorio could be seen first arriving at McAway’s apartment during the day Sept. 29 from his own residence just to the north, the report says. He appeared to leave and come back during the day but stayed through the evening. A woman also was visiting McAway’s home.
During the course of the evening, the woman and Osorio went to the nearby Circle K store on North Street and came back to McAway’s residence. About 2:50 a.m. Sept. 30, the woman could be seen fleeing from the apartment screaming with Osorio following her with a knife in his right hand, according to the report. The woman’s car could be heard screeching away, and the woman went back to the Circle K, telling the clerk “he” was going to stab her. The clerk called 911, but the woman left before officers arrived.
Osorio returned to McAway’s residence minutes later. McAway could be heard telling Osorio to “put the knife down,” followed by screams of pain, the report says.
Police believe Osorio turned the camera off at that point. Osorio told police he was aware of the camera and how it operates, according to the report.
On Monday, the Arkansas State Crime Laboratory determined McAway’s cause of death was homicide. An autopsy revealed evidence of strangulation, bone fractures and multiple blunt force injuries to the head and body, as well as lacerations.
Officers made several interviews and collected evidence. They believe Osorio returned to his home about 4 a.m. Sept. 30 and left. Osorio returned home Monday and officers spoke with him, taking photographs as evidence.
Bloody footprints at the crime scene resembled a pair of shoes Osorio appeared to be wearing the night McAway was killed, the report says.
Officers spoke with Osorio at the Police Department on Friday. Osorio said he got off work on Sept. 29 and was drinking with McAway at McAway’s home. Osario said he went “on a bender” and could not remember the next morning. According to police, Osorio did not deny he killed McAway, and said that he took two clonazepam pills in addition to drinking alcohol that night. Clonazepam is a sedative used to treat seizures, panic disorder and anxiety.
Osorio told police he did not know what happened to the shoes he was wearing that night, but that if he did get rid of them, they would be in a ditch next to the trail, the report says.
Osorio’s booking information was not posted to the Washington County Detention Center as of Saturday evening.