Anthony R. Arriaga (second from left) is arraigned Thursday morning in Mingo Circuit Court, in Williamson. Arriaga is charged with murder in the shooting death of coal company executive Ben Hatfield. He was ordered held without bail, pending a preliminary hearing on June 3. Authorities say Hatfield was visiting his late wife’s gravesite at Mountain View Memory Gardens when he was shot.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Two young men saw Ben Hatfield’s luxury SUV Sunday morning and saw dollar signs, according to police. They could now face life in prison.
Chief Deputy Joe Smith, of the Mingo County Sheriff’s Office, said Thursday that Anthony R. Arriaga, of Lima, Ohio, and Brandon Fitzpatrick, of Louisa, Kentucky, had talked about committing a robbery before they saw Hatfield’s GMC Yukon Denali in Mountain View Memory Gardens, a cemetery in Mingo County, and decided they had found their target.
Arriaga, 20, and Fitzpatrick, 18, are charged with first-degree murder in Hatfield’s death. Fitzpatrick also is charged with conspiracy, Smith said.
Arriaga was arraigned Thursday in Mingo Circuit Court, in Williamson. Circuit Judge Miki Thompson ordered him held without bail and set a preliminary hearing for June 3.
Smith interviewed Arriaga before his arraignment. According to the chief deputy, Arriaga admitted to pulling the trigger…