Anthony Arriaga and Brandon Fitzpatrick pulled into Mountain View Memory Gardens Cemetery in West Virginia on Sunday, two young and unsuccessful drug dealers desperate for cash.
They spotted a parked GMC Denali, an SUV with various models that range in price from around $30,000 to $65,000.
Bennett Hatfield, the former CEO of Patriot Coal and the owner of the Denali, wasn’t far away. He’d come to the cemetery a week ahead of Memorial Day to decorate the grave of his wife, Debbie, who died of cancer in 2009.
Arriaga, 20, and Fitzpatrick, 18, reportedly unaware of Hatfield’s status in the coal industry, allegedly figured he’d be a good person to rob after spotting his Denali. But nothing went as planned. The robbery turned into a shooting and Arriaga found himself in custody on Wednesday, where police said he confessed to murder days after fatally shooting Hatfield near the spot where his wife is buried. Read more…
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