By Erin Beck

May 25, 2016 - A man arrested in Kentucky Wednesday morning will be charged for crimes related to the slaying of Ben Hatfield, a longtime coal company executive who was killed in Mingo County earlier this week, law enforcement officials said.

Brandon Fitzpatrick, 18, was arrested by the Elsmere Police Department, in Kentucky, on charges unrelated to Hatfield’s death, Sgt. B.K. Wellman of the West Virginia State Police said.

The State Police had been looking for Fitzpatrick, who has addresses in Fort Gay, West Virginia, and Louisa, Kentucky.

Fitzpatrick will be charged with, at a minimum, a conspiracy charge related to Hatfield’s death, said Justin Marcum, a Mingo County assistant prosecuting attorney.

“He will be charged with a conspiracy charge to commit murder and possibly a murder charge,” Marcum said early Wednesday evening. “As to the extent of all his charges, I’m not sure exactly what there will be.”

Earlier Wednesday, Wellman had said police wanted to interview Fitzpatrick about his knowledge of Hatfield’s death but noted that that didn’t necessarily mean Fitzpatrick is a suspect.

“He’s definitely got knowledge, at the very least,” Wellman said.

Mingo County Prosecuting Attorney Teresa Maynard said she would issue a statement on Fitzpatrick’s charges this morning.

Fitzpatrick is the third person arrested in connection with Hatfield’s slaying.

Hatfield was found at about 6:30 a.m. Monday, dead from a gunshot wound in the Mountain View Memory Gardens, in Maher, outside Williamson.

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. Hatfield’s late wife, Debbie, is buried at the cemetery. The couple had been married 25 years when she died of breast cancer in 2009.

Anthony R. Arriaga, 20, is charged with first-degree murder. He was arrested without incident at about 2 a.m. Tuesday at a relative’s home in Delphos, Ohio, according to police.

Police have said a man who lived near the cemetery told them that Arriaga showed up at the man’s home wearing only underwear. Arriaga allegedly told the man that he’d fallen into the river and gave the man $45 to drive him to a Rite-Aid in Wayne County.

Ricky Dean Peterson, 20, of Wayne, was arrested Monday night for allegedly lying to police about the slaying. Arriaga went to Peterson’s home after the shooting and told him about it, according to a criminal complaint filed in Wayne County Magistrate Court. When police attempted to interview Peterson at home Monday night about the death, he allegedly said he knew nothing about it.

Mingo County Sheriff James Smith said Wednesday morning that he wasn’t sure when Arriaga would arrive in West Virginia to face his charges, but that it could possibly be Wednesday evening. At a hearing Tuesday afternoon, Arriaga waived his rights to remain in Ohio for extradition proceedings. Police from West Virginia left Tuesday evening to retrieve him.

Smith did not returned subsequent calls Wednesday afternoon.

A Kentucky courts official said Wednesday afternoon that no criminal complaint was yet on file, and that Fitzpatrick was not listed as being held in one of the state’s jails, so he likely was still in police custody.

Hatfield was CEO of International Coal Group in 2006, when that company’s Upshur County-based Sago Mine blew up, killing 12 miners.

Later, he was chief executive officer of Patriot Coal, amid that company’s first of two Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings.

Last year, he joined the board of directors of St. Louis-based Foresight Energy, which has operations in the Illinois basin and was founded by West Virginia native and billionaire coal operator Chris Cline.