WILLIAMSON, W.Va. — A Mingo County judge Monday denied bond on a first degree murder charge for Brandon Fitzpatrick. The 18 year old Fitzpatrick, who has addresses listed in both Fort Gay, W.Va. and Louisia, Ky. ,is one of three men charged in the death of coal executive Ben Hatfield.
Fitzpatrick was extradited back to West Virginia Friday from the state of Kentucky. He was arrested days after Hatfield’s murder in
May in the community of Ellsmere, Kentucky near Cincinnati on unrelated drug charges in a traffic stop.
Fitzpatrick remains in the Southwestern Regional Jail in Holden, W.Va. along with the accused trigger man in the murder, Anthony Arriaga, 20, of Delphos, Oh. While the judge denied bond for Fitzpatrick on the murder charge, he did set bond at $250,000 on the charge of conspiracy which would enable Fitzpatrick to be freed if the murder charge were dismissed in the future.
The third individual charged in the case, Ricky Peterson of Wayne, remains jailed in the Western Regional Jail at Barboursville, W.Va. He faces charges of accessory after the fact and providing false information to law enforcement in a murder investigation. He’s yet to appear for his arraignment on those charges in Mingo County.