The 20-year-old son of a brazen con artist who has been convicted of killing her boyfriend and then setting his body on fire is scheduled to plead guilty later this month for his role in that crime, according to court records.
Matthew Haarhoff is charged with first-degree murder in the February 2006 death of Tony Fertitta, whose body was found burning in the Old Mill community of Anne Arundel County. A family member said yesterday that Haarhoff was expected to plead to a lesser charge, but his attorney and prosecutors declined to discuss the details of the plea.
Haarhoff's mother, Cindy McKay, who was convicted of the killing in May, is now scheduled to be sentenced for that crime one day before Haarhoff.
His conviction would represent the third in the case, described by attorneys on both sides as one of the most complex they had ever handled. His older brother, Christopher Haarhoff, and McKay were also charged with first-degree murder and pleaded guilty to lesser counts.
The confidential investigative case file obtained by The Sun showed that Matthew Haarhoff offered several conflicting accounts of his whereabouts on the night of the crime and allegedly confessed to it, saying he stabbed and shot Fertitta. A medical examiner ruled Fertitta was not shot.
In interviews conducted at the Anne Arundel County Detention Center this year, Haarhoff adamantly maintained his innocence. He has spent his 18th, 19th and 20th birthdays in jail awaiting trial.
"I lied," he said. "They say the inconsistencies with my statements make me look bad, but I'd never been in that kind of situation before. I wanted to get the police off my back."
McKay, 53, whose lengthy criminal history was the subject of a three-part series in The Sun this year, entered an Alford plea April 17 to charges of second-degree murder and felony theft. McKay could face a maximum of 30 years in prison when she is sentenced July 16.
Over the course of more than two decades, McKay, a former Prince George's County police cadet and mother of six, has survived the death of a previous husband in a Christmas Day fire and was accused of burning down an Annapolis business that she had stolen from. She eluded authorities for three months in 2002 by faking a suicide after learning she was facing charges of embezzling more than $200,000 from St. Mary's Seminary and University in Roland Park, where she worked as an office administrator. Along the way, she stole tens of thousands from an elderly Delaware woman who had offered her a place to stay.
