A Johnstown man was sentenced to up to life in prison after pleading guilty but mentally ill to charges stemming to the kidnapping and killing of an Indiana County teenager in 2022.
Cambria County District Attorney Robert Manzi announced that Isaac Buchkoski, 25, has been sentenced to 50 years to life in prison for second-degree murder.
Buchkoski pled guilty but mentally ill to aggravated assault, conspiracy to commit aggravated assault, kidnapping, and conspiracy to commit kidnapping.
He received additional prison sentences ranging from two to twenty years and four and a half to twenty years for those counts. Those sentences will run consecutively, but concurrently with the murder sentence.
The investigation began in October 2022, when Hayden Garreffa, 19, was reported missing from a relative’s residence in Indiana County. Garreffa, who was autistic, was discovered dead two days later in a secluded rural region in Brush Valley Township.
An autopsy indicated that he had been stabbed repeatedly in the body, neck, and skull.
According to authorities, Buchkoski seduced Garreffa before kidnapping him along with others. According to police, Buchkoski nursed a hatred against Garreffa because of an incident involving Buchkoski’s girlfriend.
According to court documents, Buchkoski informed a witness Garreffa “would be dead before the end of the day.”
Seven adults and one juvenile were charged in connection with the kidnapping and murder. In 2024, co-defendant Taylyn Edwards pled guilty but mentally ill to first-degree murder and kidnapping when the court discovered proof that she was suffering from mental illness at the time of the crime.
According to authorities, Garreffa was assassinated less than an hour after being kidnaped. The Indiana County Coroner ruled his death as a homicide.
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