Police in West Virginia and OH have made two arrests in relation to the death of former International Coal Group CEO Ben Hatfield.
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Fitzpatrick fled back to Kentucky, where law enforcement arrested him after he stopped at a gas station with Arriaga’s mother. “As to the extent of all his charges, I’m not sure exactly what there will be”.
That driver notified police after he heard about Hatfield’s death, and they tracked down the suspect in Ohio.
“He’s definitely got knowledge, at the very least”, Wellman said.
Fitzpatrick and Anthony Arriaga face murder charges in Hatfield’s shooting at a Mingo County cemetery.
Ben Hatfield was found shot to death in the Mountain View Memory Gardens Cemetery in Mingo County early Monday morning.
He had been reported as a missing person, and police were at the cemetery because Hatfield’s vehicle was spotted there, according to a criminal complaint filed in Mingo County Magistrate Court. The couple had been married 25 years when she died of breast cancer in 2009.
Sheriff James Smith says around 1 p.m. Sunday, Hatfield was cleaning his wife and in-laws’ graves when Brandon Fitzpatrick, 18, of Louisa, and Anthony Arriaga, 20, of Gibsonburg, Ohio, pulled up to the cemetery. Authorities said they were able to track down Arriaga after a man called State Police and said he was approached by a man near the cemetery who was clad only in his underwear. He had apparently emerged from the cemetery wearing only his underwear and paid someone $45 to take him to a Rite Aid in another county.
Maynard says it was through friendship with Peterson, 20, that Arriaga met Fitzpatrick.
Another 20-year-old man, Ricky Dean Peterson, was arrested Monday night on charges he lied to investigators about whether he knew anything about the killing.
Anthony Raheem Arriaga is shown in a photo provided by the Allen County (Ohio) Sheriffs office, Tuesday, May 24, 2016. An extradition hearing is expected to happen Thursday.
Bennett Hatfield, 59, who resigned as CEO of Patriot Coal in 2015 one month before the firm declared bankruptcy, was CEO of International Coal Group in 2006 when an explosion at the Sago Mine in northern West Virginia killed 12 miners.
He also worked in management jobs with Arch Coal and Massey Energy, received an appointment last June to the board of St. Louis coal producer Foresight Energy and served on the board of the West Virginia Coal Association. Ricky Peterson of Wayne is charged with accessory after the fact, obstructing and giving false information to police.
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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.
