A Kentucky teenager accused in the killing of longtime coal company executive Ben Hatfield has waived extradition and will be brought to West Virginia to face charges.
Brandon Fitzpatrick waived extradition at a video status hearing in front of Kenton County District Judge Doug Grothaus, according to a court official.
The Mingo County prosecuting attorney's office in West Virginia doesn't have an exact date for when Fitzpatrick will be brought there.
A preliminary hearing scheduled for this week for another man charged in the slaying has been rescheduled, a court official said. The hearing for Anthony R. Arriaga is now scheduled for 9 a.m. June 22 in Mingo County Magistrate Court.
Arriaga, 20, and Fitzpatrick, 18, are charged with first-degree murder in Hatfield's death. Fitzpatrick also is charged with conspiracy.
Police say Arriaga, of Lima, Ohio, and 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.
Hatfield's body was found at about 6:30 a.m. May 23, over a hill by a river bank at the cemetery in Maher, outside Williamson.
Police said they believe Hatfield, a longtime coal company executive, was shot in the back the day before while he cleaned an in-law's grave marker. He already had cleaned the grave of his late wife, Debbie, who died of breast cancer in 2009.
After Hatfield was shot, he was able to make it about 50 to 60 yards away, to the edge of the Tug Fork River, where he collapsed and died.
Police said they believe Fitzpatrick fled the scene in a vehicle. They say Arriaga was supposed to steal the Denali, then meet back up with Fitzpatrick. Instead, they say, Arriaga panicked and ran over a bank, straight into the river.
He was arrested by the Elsmere Police Department, in Kentucky, on charges unrelated to Hatfield's death.
Arriaga then allegedly paid a nearby resident $45 to drive him to a Rite-Aid in Wayne. Police said they believe he met back up with Fitzpatrick after that, at the Wayne home of Ricky Peterson.
Peterson, 20, has been charged with being an accessory to murder after the fact, obstructing/resisting an officer and providing false information to police. Arriaga allegedly told Peterson about the shooting, and Peterson then allegedly lied to police when they tried to interview him.
-STAFF REPORTS