Private Detective Accused in Utah as Hired Assassin

A private investigator has been arrested in Utah and charged with being the paid executioner who shot a businessman to death last January in the parking lot behind his Glendale store.

Robert Goode, 26, was taken into custody last week on a fugitive warrant issued June 20 in Glendale Municipal Court. He was charged with first-degree murder for financial gain, the special circumstance of lying in wait, and weapons violations in the death of Frank Fitzpatrick.

Goode is fighting extradition and was released on $100,000 bail Tuesday, the Salt Lake County attorney’s office said. Goode is from Orem, Utah.

“We don’t consider him dangerous. He has to check in daily and he has family here . . . that leads us to believe he won’t flee,” said Michael Christensen, county attorney.

Fitzpatrick, 47, was shot five times Jan. 13 in the parking lot behind his business, Glendale Phone Mart, 215 N. Central Ave. Police ruled out robbery as a motive but are releasing little information about the crime and circumstances surrounding it.

‘Continuing Investigation’

“I just can’t talk about it. The police are continuing their investigation,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Marissa N. Batt.

“We have no comment at this time,” said Sgt. Steve Campbell of the Glendale Police Department.

Even a detective from the Midvale Police Department in Utah said he has not been told of the circumstances surrounding the crime.

“We don’t know anything. We just executed the warrant based on the Glendale Police Department’s arrest warrant,” said Detective Tim Start.

Start said police used a “ruse” to take Goode into custody. Learning that the private investigator had applied for a concealed weapons permit, police asked him to come to the American Fork Police Station near Salt Lake City to discuss his application. He was arrested when he arrived June 24.

Fitzpatrick, who lived in Valencia, opened his Glendale business in 1984, city records show. From the 500-square-foot store, Fitzpatrick and two employees sold telephones and telephone equipment.

Other Glendale business people said they were mystified as to why he was slain.

“It blew me away. I couldn’t imagine what it was that made someone kill him like that,” said Julie Burroughs, membership director of the Glendale Chamber of Commerce, of which Fitzpatrick was an active member.

According to the California Department of Corporations, the business was listed as an affiliate of I. D. Products, Inc. Fitzpatrick was named as the president and agent of the corporation, which had no complaints filed against it.

The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office is preparing a governor’s warrant to extradite Goode to California. It will take up to three months before he can be brought to Glendale to face the charges, said Harriet Sherman, of the extradition department.