A 35-year-old Cleveland man has pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in the death of 19-year-old Faith Fortune, a Tiffin woman who was fatally shot inside his apartment on the city's East Side last November. William White had been scheduled to stand trial for murder before entering the plea, which also covers felonious assault, illegal firearm possession, and charges from a separate 2024 case involving strangulation, assault and resisting arrest.
Fortune died from a gunshot wound to the head while she was at White's apartment in the 3400 block of East 98th Street, according to Cleveland.com. The apartment sits within Union Square Apartments, a 174-unit public housing development at 3495 East 98th Street managed by the Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority, which underwent major facility upgrades between 2022 and 2026. Emergency responders and Cleveland Police were dispatched shortly before 1 a.m. on Sunday, November 2, 2025, to assist CMHA housing officers after dispatch received a call reporting an unresponsive woman with a gunshot wound to the head, and paramedics pronounced Fortune dead at the scene shortly after arriving.
A Plea Deal With a Decades-Long Range
The plea deal includes a recommended sentence of 22 to 27 years in prison. Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge Timothy McCormick is scheduled to sentence White on August 18 at the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas. McCormick has served on the county bench since 1995 and was re-elected in November 2024 to a term running through January 2031, according to Ballotpedia.
The wide sentencing range stems from Ohio's Reagan Tokes Law, which requires an indefinite sentence for qualifying first-degree felonies: the court sets a minimum term, then calculates the maximum as that minimum plus 50 percent, per the Supreme Court of Ohio. The law was enacted following the 2017 murder of Ohio State student Reagan Tokes. Under Ohio Revised Code § 2903.04, involuntary manslaughter tied to an underlying felony is itself a first-degree felony carrying a base term of 3 to 11 years, with mandatory add-on time for firearm specifications, as outlined by FindLaw.
White was also legally barred from owning a firearm as a convicted felon. Ohio Revised Code § 2923.13 makes having weapons while under disability a third-degree felony punishable by up to 36 months for people with prior violent felony convictions, according to Patituce & Associates.
Remembering Faith Fortune
Fortune graduated from North Central Academy in 2024 and had gone on to study welding at Sentinel Career Center. She was remembered at a funeral service on November 14, 2025, at Engle-Shook Funeral Home in her hometown of Tiffin before being buried at Woodlawn Cemetery, according to the funeral home. She was survived by her parents and three sisters in Tiffin.
A Complex With a History of Violence
Union Square Apartments has been the site of multiple violent incidents and police responses in recent years, including a fatal officer-involved shooting in June 2022 and parking lot shootings, according to WKYC. CMHA police and the Cleveland Division of Police maintain joint jurisdiction over incidents at public housing developments. Legal analysts have noted that public housing developments can face civil wrongful death or premises liability lawsuits if security protocols are found to have been inadequate, per the Murray Law Firm, though no such civil claim tied to this case is noted in available records.
The shooting occurred during a year when homicides in Cleveland were trending downward. Homicides dropped 11.5 percent citywide in 2025, falling from 122 in 2024 to 108, according to Major Cities Chiefs Association data reported by Axios. Violent crime declined across major offense categories nationwide over the same period.
White's guilty plea resolves the criminal case ahead of next week's sentencing, though questions remain about how a man legally barred from owning a firearm obtained one, and about security conditions at the complex where Fortune died.
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