West Virginia State Police said they are obtaining a murder warrant for a man who was named earlier Wednesday as a person of interest in the investigation of the murder of coal executive Ben Hatfield in Mingo County.
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And new evidence surfaced Tuesday bringing two West Virginia detectives to Delphos.
Fitzpatrick will make the third person charged in the case.
Both men have been charged with conspiracy and murder, in what Sheriff Smith is calling a random act of violence.
Arriaga and Fitzpatrick are charged with first-degree murder.
Bennett Hatfield was found fatally shot at a cemetery Monday.
Arriaga lived with her parents and with her part of the time while he was growing up, played sports in high school and has been working in construction, she said.
Thames says police stopped a vehicle carrying Marcum and Brandon Lee Fitzpatrick, and methamphetamine was confiscated.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) – A West Virginia sheriff says investigators are trying to determine a motive in the fatal shooting of a former coal company executive at a cemetery where the businessman’s wife is buried. Investigators say they got a tip that Arriaga visited Peterson after the murder.
Maynard said the random shooting led authorities to believe that Arriaga had no connection to Hatfield.
Arriaga, second left, is arraigned Thursday, May 26, 2016, in Mingo County Circuit Court before Judge Miki Thompson, in Williamson, WV. Arriaga is one of three suspects in the shooting death of ex-coal chief executive Bennett Hatfield. He was arrested in OH early Tuesday morning and is charged with first-degree murder.
Fitzpatrick is scheduled to have a preliminary hearing in Kenton County on a drug possession charge on June 1.
Arriaga allegedly emerged from the cemetery wearing just his underwear and paid a neighbor $45 to take him to Wayne County, where he told his friend Ricky Dean Peterson about the shooting.
Bennett Hatfield, the former CEO of Patriot Coal and the owner of the Denali, wasn’t far away. Hatfield, who was president and CEO of Patriot Coal until previous year, was CEO of International Coal Group when a 2006 explosion in northern West Virginia killed 12 of the company’s miners. His wife, Debbie, who died in 2009 after a battle with breast cancer, is buried at that cemetery, according to media reports.
Arriaga was arrested Tuesday in Allen County, Ohio, before being returned to West Virginia.
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Smith says Arriaga dropped the gun in the river, and took off his clothes because they were wet from going over the riverbank.
