Uniontown man sentenced to life in prison for wife鈥檚 death
A Uniontown man was convicted of first-degree murder Thursday in the shooting death of his wife at their Fayette County home.
It took a jury about 90 minutes of deliberation to find Arthur Guty, 57, guilty on all counts after a four-day trial, said Fayette County District Attorney Mike Aubele. Guty was sentenced immediately to life imprisonment without parole for the killing of Franyerlys Nicole Zambrano Briceno, 26.
Police found her in the couple鈥檚 home on Bierer Avenue in Uniontown on Jan. 1, 2024 with a single gunshot wound to the head. Law enforcement officials had come to the house to do a wellness check after she had not been seen for several days.
鈥淪he wasn鈥檛 somebody who would miss work,鈥� Aubele said. 鈥淪he wasn鈥檛 somebody who would stop having contact with people. So immediately, Uniontown police, state police, pretty much every agency in Fayette County, started checking everywhere they could.鈥�
Guty was arrested on Jan. 2 in Las Vegas, where he was staying in a hotel. When taken into custody, he had $140,000 and plans to flee to Mexico, police said.
Police pinpointed the murder to late in the evening of Dec. 26, 2023 or early on the morning of Dec. 27, Aubele said. After that time, Aubele said, Guty drove to Maryland, where he left her cellphone along the roadway. Police recovered the phone in February 2024.
Cellphone data then showed Guty traveling across the country at the same time he was spreading false information about where his wife was, to 鈥渕ake us think she was OK when she clearly wasn鈥檛,鈥� Aubele said.
In addition to the murder charge, the jury also found Guty guilty of aggravated assault and tampering with physical evidence.
Guty鈥檚 attorney, Brian Aston, declined comment for the story.
Aubele, who prosecuted the case with Assistant District Attorney Anthony Gentile, said the case drew on numerous pieces of circumstantial and forensic evidence in addition to the cellphone data.
There were no aggravating factors that would have allowed prosecutors to seek the death penalty in the case, Aubele said. Regardless, he said, that doesn鈥檛 minimize the 鈥渆xtremely violent nature鈥� of the attack.
鈥淚t was an extremely heinous act,鈥� Aubele said. 鈥淪he was killed while she was sleeping. And we were able to prove to the jury not only that he was a very, very jealous man that thought she was being unfaithful and had motive to kill her, but he did so in cold blood and tried to get away.鈥�
Aubele said he鈥檚 鈥渧ery pleased鈥� with the verdict, which also provides closure to family members who had been traveling to the hearings throughout the process from Venezuela, Florida and all around the U.S.
鈥淚t was a great thing yesterday to be able to do that,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 bring Nicole back, but we can certainly guarantee that this man is not going to do this to anybody else.鈥�