Classification: Murderer
Characteristics:
Kidnapping
Number of victims: 1
Date of murder: March
3, 2011
Date of arrest: May 5,
2011
Date of birth: 1992
Victim profile:
Micaela "Mickey" Constanzo, 16
Method of murder:
Slashing her throat
Location: West
Wendover, Elko County, Nevada, USA
Status: Sentenced to
life in prison with the possibility of parole after 18 years on April 16, 2012
West Wendover teen
sentenced to up to life for killing
By Aaron Falk - The
Salt Lake Tribune, April 17, 2012
Elko, Nev. - Nightmares interrupt Celia Costanzo's sleep.
The West Wendover woman hasn't worked a full week in nearly
a year. She cannot bring herself to go the restaurants where she once met her
daughter for lunch. She can seldom cook at home because she was teaching Mickey
to cook when the 16-year-old was killed.
"There's a part
of me that's just been ripped away and I'm not whole," Celia Costanzo
said Monday, as she asked for the maximum sentence for one of the two teens
officials say murdered Micaela "Mickey" Costanzo.
"There's not a
day, not a moment, not a second that I don't think about her," said
her mother.
A few feet away in court, 19-year-old Toni Fratto sat with
her attorneys, listening with her head down. Earlier, Fratto's parents watched
as the petite 19-year-old dragged her ankle shackles across the hardwood floors
in Elko District Court.
It's been just over a year since prosecutors say Fratto and
her boyfriend, 19-year-old Kody Cree Patten, took Micaela Costanzo into the
desert outside West Wendover and killed her with a camping shovel.
Fratto was not a suspect until she came forward to Patten's
attorneys and offered a confession. Earlier this year, Fratto took a plea deal
that removed the possibility of the death penalty in exchange for her testimony
against Patten.
She said she sat on Costanzo's legs as Patten slashed her
throat.
In a tearful hearing Monday, Judge Dan Papez sentenced
Fratto to up to life in prison, with parole possible after 18 years.
Elko County District Attorney Mark Torvinen called the
slaying as "horrific a murder as I
suspect you will ever see," made only worse because Costanzo was as "innocent a victim as you could
imagine."
Costanzo was a good student, a basketball player and a track
star. She was the editor of her school's newspaper and she dreamed of being an
author. She would have been graduating in a few weeks, her mother said.
Papez's description of Costanzo's wounds brought many to
tears, including the parents of Kody Patten, whose son is scheduled to stand
trial in July.
"She suffered
during the attack," the judge said. "It took a long time for her to die. Horrible suffering."
Even after a 3 1/2-hour meeting between Fratto and
prosecutors, questions in the case remain unanswered.
"While there are
many facts ... explaining what happened, I don't have any information
about why this happened," Papez said. "That's the big question that remains."
"Nobody has an
answer for that," defense attorney John Springgate said after the
hearing.
In court, Springgate offered some explanation for Fratto's
role: She was not a "black
widow," but rather a "sheep."
Psychological testing has shown Fratto has the mental and emotional
maturity of a 15-year-old, Springgate said, and she was being controlled by "a boyfriend who was jealous and
possessive and isolating."
A month before the slaying, security cameras at West
Wendover High School — where Costanzo, Fratto and Patten all had attended —
caught Patten pushing Fratto against a wall, lifting her legs off the ground as
he choked her, Springgate said. It was not the first nor last time Patten
abused Fratto, he said.
Fratto offered an apology to the Costanzos.
"I know what I
did was wrong and therefore I am taking responsibility for my actions,"
she said through tears. "I'm sorry
for what I did and I'm sorry for what I did not do — and that is
protect [Micaela]."
Fratto has said she came from a family that offered her "unconditional love and letters to
the judge described Fratto as a kind and gentle girl, a good student and a good
friend.
That's what makes her involvement all the more puzzling,
Papez said.
On the witness stand, Cassie Fratto said her daughter had
started to change in the year before the slaying. The Frattos allowed Patten to
move into their home for about six weeks before Costanzo's death because they
feared their daughter would leave if they did not.
"We thought Kody
was really trying to put his life in order," Claude Fratto, the girl's
father, said in an email to The Tribune. "He
has always had a lot of problems. ... The side of Kody which we knew is
completely different from the Kody we know now."
Every Sunday, after church, Fratto's parents visit her in
the Elko County jail. They say she has changed again in the last year.
"We have our Toni
back," Cassie Fratto said in court.
Cassie Fratto said she hopes her daughter will one day be
able to have a productive life. The teen has a dream of helping others, she
said. "She wants to help others who
have suffered through abuse, or the pain and anguish of having someone take
your life away from you."
'This is a violent
killing as I have ever seen'.
Judge sentences
Mormon girl, 19, to life in prison for beating girl, 16, to death with shovel
DailyMail.co.uk, April
17, 2012
A Mormon teenager has been sentenced to life behind bars for
helping her boyfriend beat his ex-girlfriend to death with a shovel in a crime
the judge branded 'as violent as I've ever seen'.
Toni Fratto, who will be eligible for parole in 10 years,
avoided a death sentence by entering a plea deal in January and agreeing to
testify against her former boyfriend, Kody Cree Patten, 19.
She admitted they had kidnapped 16-year-old Micaela Costanzo
after school in March 2011. They took her to the desert, killed her and buried
her in a shallow grave near West Wendover, Nevada.
Fratto, 19, admitted she had hit the girl, a promising
student known as 'Mickey', in the
back of the head with a shovel and sat on her legs while Patten slashed her
throat, the Deseret News reported.
Judge Daniel Papez gave Fratto the maximum penalty the law
allows. She has been sentenced to life behind bars and must serve at least 18
years with the possibility of parole in 10.
'This is as violent [a
killing] as I've seen in 20 years on the bench,' Papez said. 'The attack on Micaela was brutal, it was
vicious, it was violent - all shockingly so.'
Papez described the victim as 'innocent a victim as you could imagine'. Costanzo was a top
student and sports star at the school, as well as the editor of the student
newspaper.
Prosecutors claimed in the trial last July that the couple,
who were planning to get married, murdered Costanzo because she had been
texting Patten asking to get back together with him.
Judge Papez told the court it took a long time for her to
die in the brutal killing.
Fratto, who wept in court as the judge handed down the
punishment, had not been a suspect until she came forward to her boyfriend's
lawyers and confessed to her part in the crime.
Her defense attorney, John Springgate, pointed out that no
forensic evidence linked her to the scene so it was her confession that led to
her arrest.
He painted a picture of the female killer as a 'sheep' that was not fully in control of
her actions, The Salt Lake Tribune reported.
Tests proved Fratto had the mental and emotional maturity of
a 15-year-old and was under the influence of Patten, who was 'jealous and possessive and isolating',
Springgate said.
Security cameras at their school had shown footage of Patten
choking Fratto; Springgate said it was not an isolated incident. He added that
it was Patten who had collected the materials for the killing.
Acknowledging that Fratto had been a well-liked student with
no criminal history, the judge agreed it was 'puzzling that a person like you
could participate in such a terrible crime'.
Her mother Cassie testified that her daughter had begun to
change ahead of the murder. Patten had stayed with them for six weeks before
the crime as they feared their daughter would leave otherwise.
Now, away from the control of her boyfriend, Fratto is the
person they knew before he came into their lives, Cassie said.
Weeping ahead of her sentence, Toni Patten said in court on
Monday: 'I would like to apologize for my
actions and the tragedy that has happened. I know what I did was wrong.’
'I'm sorry for what I
did to Micaela and for what I did not do, protect her. It does not change what
happened. But I do mean I'm sorry.'
But there was little forgiveness from the family of the
victim. Costanzo's mother Celia pleaded for the maximum sentence for Fratto.
'There’s a part of me
that’s just been ripped away and I’m not whole. There’s not a day, not a
moment, not a second that I don’t think about her,' she said.
The victim's father, Theodore, had also asked for the
maximum penalty, saying he still felt he was 'dreaming' about the murder. 'I
don't want nothing good for her, ever,' he said of the killer.
As she was handed down the maximum sentence, some audience
members cheered, as Fratto put her head in her hands and sobbed.
Kody Patten is due to stand trial in July. Fratto may be
called to testify at his trial.
Judge orders life
sentence for murder 'as violent as I've seen'
Hurting families still
puzzled over why Wendover teen was killed, By Pat Reavy - DeseretNews.com, April
16, 2012
ELKO, Nev. — Facing the family of the West Wendover High
School classmate she admitted to help murdering, Toni Fratto delivered a
tearful apology.
"I would like to
apologize for my actions and the tragedy that has happened. I know what I did
was wrong," she said Monday before she was sentenced. "I'm sorry for what I did to Micaela
and for what I did not do, protect her. It does not change what happened. But I
do mean I'm sorry."
Fratto avoided a possible death sentence by entering a plea deal
in January, pleading guilty to a reduced charge of second-degree murder. She
admitted that she and 19-year-old Kody Cree Patten, whom she was reportedly
planning to marry, kidnapped and killed 16-year-old Micaela "Mickey" Costanzo after
school, taking her to a remote area near the Utah-Nevada border, killing her
and then burying her in a shallow grave.
Fratto admitted she hit Micaela in the back of the head with
a shovel and sat on the teen's legs while Patten slashed her throat on March 3,
2011.
Monday, Elko District Judge Daniel Papez gave Fratto the
maximum penalty the law allows, sentencing her to life in prison with the
possibility of parole. Fratto also received a 20-year weapons enhancement
penalty which will begin after her life sentence is over.
"This is as
violent (a murder) as I've seen in 20 years on the bench," Papez said.
"The attack on Micaela was brutal,
it was vicious, and it was violent — all shockingly so."
Referring to the medical examiner's report, Papez said the
girl's death was slow and torturous.
Fratto will serve a minimum of 18 years in prison. She will
be eligible for parole in 10 years. Once she is paroled on her murder
conviction, she will serve a minimum of eight years on her enhancement penalty.
But while her family and attorneys say Fratto has taken
responsibility for her actions, the question of why Micaela was killed still
remained unanswered Monday.
"That's the
biggest question in all of this. She just (said to) me a few days ago, 'Why?
Why, why, why did this happen? I don't understand,'" Cassie Fratto,
Toni's mother, said after the sentencing.
Patten is scheduled to go on trial July 31 on a charge of
first-degree murder. Prosecutor Mark Torvinen filed notice that he intends to
seek the death penalty if Patten is convicted.
Monday, Cassie Fratto said there are elements of the case
that have not yet been made public. "There's
things that lead up to that night that no one is aware of yet," she
said.
When Patten picked up Fratto the night of Micaela's murder,
he had already been driving around with Micaela in his truck for about 90
minutes. Cassie Fratto said when Patten picked up her daughter; she had no idea
what was going to happen. Toni Fratto actually thought her own life was in
danger, her mother said.
"She did not
believe that she would ever see her family again. She knew her life was in
danger," Cassie Fratto said. "She
knew Kody very well. We all knew Kody very well. She knew Kody, and she knew
the frame of mind he was in that night. And she knew as soon as she got in the
car, she told me, 'Mom, I knew I wasn't coming home.'"
When asked to explain why his client went along with the
killing and didn't try to help Micaela, defense attorney John Springgate didn't
have an answer.
"We're pretty
clear that adolescents do unbelievably stupid things. And her psychological
profile shows that she is, while she's 19 years old now, mentally and
emotionally she is much younger. And typically adolescents do not think things
out," he said.
"I'm not going to
try Mr. Patten's case. But according to the statements and according to
everything we know, it was Mr. Patten who was getting all the materials
together, it was Mr. Patten who said she had to die. So you can draw your own
conclusion who was the organizer. But the girl I was representing did not seem
like an organizer to me."
Even the judge seemed confused by Fratto's actions, noting
that she had no prior criminal history at all, even as a juvenile, and was an
active member in her LDS ward and was well-liked in school.
"That's what
makes this even more puzzling, that a person like you could participate in such
a terrible crime," he said. "Micaela's
loss to her family, to her school, to the community of Wendover will be felt
forever. I hope that someday, Ms. Fratto, that you'll be able to get your life
back in order. You have to live with this forever."
Fratto was sentenced before a full courtroom with members of
both families as well as Patten's father, who sat in the back.
Springgate noted to the judge before sentencing that Fratto
scored below average in her pre-sentence psychological evaluation. He also
noted that she was mentally and physically abused by Patten. Springgate talked
about an incident in January 2011, prior to Micaela's murder, in which a
security camera at West Wendover High School recorded Patten slamming Fratto
against a locker and strangling her.
Cassie Fratto said since her daughter has been incarcerated
for the past year and away from Patten, she has returned to being the person
she used to be.
"The hope that I
have for Toni is for her to be able to," she told the judge, pausing, "to move on with her life, her dream,
and to be able to fulfill those dreams in a way she has recently talked to me
about. ... This incident has made her stronger in her belief in helping
others."
Springgate argued that Fratto would never have been arrested
if she had not come forward and confessed because she felt guilty. There was no
forensic evidence linking Fratto to the crime.
But as Springgate tried to convince Papez that his client
was a person who could be rehabilitated and was not a monster, Micaela's mother
and members of her family in the audience shook their heads in disagreement.
Micaela's mother, father and one of her sisters each asked
the judge to deliver the maximum penalty. Cecilia Costanzo was in tears, and at
times shaking, as she recounted how her life has been turned upside down.
"It's basically
destroyed me," Costanzo told the judge.
She said she can't even cook, go to the grocery store or
even read books with her grandchildren because those are events that remind her
of what she used to do with her daughter.
"There's not a
day, a moment, a second that I don't think about her and what we would be
doing. I can't even go out and have a lunch because that was kind of our thing
on Mondays and Tuesdays," she said while wiping away tears. "With Micaela being gone, there's a
part of me that has just been ripped away."
Micaela would have graduated from high school in a few
weeks. Not only was she a star athlete on the track team, she was also editor
of the school newspaper and had aspirations of becoming a writer.
"I don't have
that chance to see Micaela grow to see her become the author, the mom. ... I
can't make this right for Micaela, only the court can," she said.
Costanzo said Micaela's death also deeply affects her
sisters.
"My daughter is
not the same girl at all. She can't live in Wendover. She quit college. She's
struggling just trying to go on day by day. She's pulled herself away from
everyone because she and Mickey were so close, she just can't be ...,"
an emotional Costanzo said. "She has
a hard time being around anything that reminds her of Micaela and what they
always did together."
Christina Lininger, another older sister of Micaela, echoed
those feelings, saying she no longer feels safe in her own community.
"Now I'm just
scared all the time," she said. "I
beg you to give her the same thing she gave my sister. She didn't give her a
chance, she could have helped her."
Lininger wiped back tears as she mentioned how Fratto can
call her parents while in jail, but she can never again call Micaela to tell
her she loves her.
Micaela's father, Theodore Anthony Costanzo Jr., told the
judge he thinks of his daughter every morning.
"I wouldn't know
where to start, because I still think I'm dreaming. I think this can't be
happening here," he said, when asked how his daughter's death has
impacted him.
He too asked Papez to deliver the maximum sentence.
"I don't want
nothing good for her, ever. That's what I say, that's what I want," he
said.
Torvinen reminded the judge that despite the mitigating
evidence presented, "The central
reality of this murder is that the defendant before you acknowledged voluntarily
participating in it. It's as horrific a murder as I suspect you will ever see
as a judge."
The prosecutor also called Micaela "as innocent a victim as anyone might envision."
As Papez recounted how brutal Micaela's killing was, her
family, sitting in the audience, broke down in tears again. He then delivered the
maximum sentence, prompting an audible cheer of "yes!" from at least
one member of the audience.
After the judge and members of Micaela's family left the
courtroom, Fratto bowed her head down to the table in front of her, buried her
face in her hands and cried. She was then allowed a tearful brief conversation
with her father before being led away with her hands handcuffed and feet
shackled.
As part of the plea agreement, Fratto may be called to
testify during Patten's trial.
Mormon girl Toni
Fratto 'helped teenage lover beat his
ex-girlfriend to death with shovel'
By Lena Sullivan -
Gadailynews.com, July 16, 2011
A Mormon teenager will stand trial for allegedly helping her
lover to kill his 16-year-old ex-girlfriend, a judge has ruled.
Toni Fratto, 19, and Kody Patten, 18, are accused of hitting
Micaela Costanzo over the head with a shovel, cutting her throat and then
burying her body in a shallow grave just outside West Wendover, Nevada.
Prosecutors claim the couple, who were planning to get
married, murdered Micaela because she had been texting Patten asking to get
back together with him.
After the killing, the pair drove to a nearby swimming pool
to 'clean up' - and then went to
McDonald's, the court heard.
Patten was charged just days after the murder in March, but
Fratto was arrested more than a month later, after she allegedly confessed to
Patten's father and his lawyer.
On Thursday a judge ruled she, too, will now stand trial
alongside her boyfriend on murder and kidnapping charges.
In the taped confession, which Fratto's lawyer has dismissed
as 'wholly rubbish', she told lawyers the couple had arranged to speak to
Micaela after she sent Patten text messages asking to get back together.
The pair had dated a couple of years previously, but had
broken up before Patten and Fratto began their relationship.
In January he was baptised as a Mormon so they couple could
get married at the Temple.
Fratto told lawyers Patten picked her and Micaela up and
then drove out of town because Micaela, described as a popular student, 'didn't want anyone to see us or anything.'
As they drove, Micaela became more and more agitated,
according to Fratto.
When they stopped, Micaela and Patten got out of the car to
talk. The conversation soon descended into a shouting match, and the pair began
shoving each other, Fratto claims.
She told lawyers: 'I
looked away, and then heard a loud thud on the car.'
Fratto got out and saw the 16-year-old lying on the ground.
She said: 'Everything from there on out
was kind of a blur to me. It went downhill from there.'
According to Fratto, they started 'freaking out' and they
didn't know what to do.
So she allegedly hit Micaela in the back with a shovel, and
then together she and Patten cut the girl's throat, she said.
Then they buried her body in a shallow grave and drove away.
Fratto said they were both in shock, and asked themselves
repeatedly: 'What did we just do? What do
we do? We didn't know what we had just done.'
According to Patten's father, Kip, Fratto told him the pair
went to a local swimming pool to 'clean up' - and then went to McDonald's.
But Fratto's defense lawyer claims that the recording wasn't
credible, and parts of it were completely made up.
He claims some details of the confession did not tally with
how Micaela was killed, and surveillance cameras at the school only show
Patten, not Fratto.
He also said Patten's father drove Fratto to his lawyer's
office to make her confession when her parents were out of town, as he knew
they didn't want her to speak to an attorney without them being present.
Under cross-examination, Kip Patten testified: 'She said she wanted to come forward with
it. She didn't want Kody to pay for something they both participated in.'
There is no forensic evidence linking Fratto to the murder,
the court heard,
A two-day preliminary hearing for Patten is due to start on
August 2.
Police, Defense
Search for Evidence for and against Toni Fratto’s Bombshell Confession
By Howard Copelan
Coyote-tv.com, May 20, 2011
The bombshell confession of West Wendover teen Toni Fratto
that she was involved in the murder of Micaela Costanzo has prompted a flurry
of activity from both the defense and the prosecution looking for evidence
either corroborating her confession or exonerating the girl.
Forensic specialists from the Washoe Crime Lab were in
Wendover this week collecting samples from Fratto’s home, ca,r and clothes to find some trace evidence that would confirm at least her presence
during the time of the killing. Investigators also reportedly combed through
the murder scene as well as the gravel pit where some of Mickey Costanzo’s
possessions were found partially burnt.
It is unknown as of press time whether these real-life CSIs
have found a smoking gun, such as Costanzo’s blood on Fratto’s clothes.
But as one side searches of for evidence that would confirm
Fratto’s confession, her defense team is looking for any evidence that would
generate doubt as to the confession’s accuracy.
In a legal maneuver worthy of silver screen Reno Attorney
John Ohlson submitted an audio tape of Toni Fratto admitting to being one of
Micaela Costanzo’s killers during a pretrial hearing for his client Kody Patten
on May 3rd in Elko district court. Until that moment Patten was the only
suspect in the murder that shook Wendover to its very core.
According to the police report of the tape, Fratto states
that she and Patten drove Costanzo five miles west of Wendover to an NDOT
gravel pit. There the couple beat unconscious and then Fratto cut the young
girl’s throat with a knife. The two then buried her in a shallow grave and then
drove about ten miles past Wendover Utah to burn the knife and Costanzo’s
possessions at another gravel pit about 3 miles northeast of Wendover, Utah.
According to the police report, if Fratto wa,s as she claims, a participant, the entire crime and the cleanup had to have taken place between
the hours of 5 pm and 6 pm on March 3rd, at the very most an hour.
While the girl’s whereabouts is not known from 5 pm, she and
her mother were recorded as being in attendance at a West Wendover Recreation
District meeting at 6 pm and witnesses’ report they arrived a few minutes
before the meeting was gaveled to begin.
“I think they were
there a little before the meeting began,” said board chairman Kerry
Robinson.
A run through conducted Wednesday by the High Desert
Advocate suggested that 55 minutes was enough time but just barely. Following
Fratto’s version of events in the police report, the Advocate timed the drive
involved. The drive from the West Wendover High School to the Nevada gravel
pit, the murder scene took approximately 10 minutes. The drive back through
Wendover to the Utah gravel pit took approximately 15 minutes, and the drive
back from the Utah gravel pit to the Fratto house another 15 minutes. With the drive
times subtracted the couple if Fratto’s account is true had about 20 minutes to
commit the murder, destroy the evidence across town and then return home to
cleanup before Toni Fratto was seen again with her parents.
There could also be video evidence that would cut those 20
minutes even further. According to confidential sources, Toni Fratto was picking
up her mother from work at the Peppermill Casino well before 6 pm and might
have been recorded by the company’s security cameras. She may also have been
recorded on the city of West Wendover security camera when she reportedly left
off her father for a union meeting also before 6 pm at City Hall.
Depending on the whether those videos were saved and the
time stamps on them, they could render at least Toni Fratto’s time line at the
very least improbable. If there is credible evidence that the girl was seen
either alone or with her parents in much earlier it would make her time line
impossible.
Not discounting the possibility the girl lied about the
chain of events in the murder while she was confessing to the killing there may
be other chinks in her story.
According to confidential sources, on the Friday after the
murder, Fratto received several calls from Patten directing her to tell police
that he was with her during the time of the killing.
According to sources at no time during any of Patten’s
interrogation sessions with police did he implicate his lover Fratto? And there
was no physical evidence, at least none released to the public, linking her to
the crime.
Starting with her cool demeanor, supposedly less than an hour
after brutally cutting Mickey Costanzo’s throat, she gave away nothing more
than being the distraught girlfriend of a confessed murderer. And she walked
out of her one and only police interview while Mickey Costanzo was only missing
with an apology from the police for troubling her. For six weeks, the girl went
about her daily routine and never raised any suspicions with police or
sheriff’s detectives.
In fact, her entry into the law offices of Patten’s attorney, Jeffrey Kump, on April 22nd in Elko, came as complete surprise both to the defense
and later to the prosecution. Indeed as one officer put it, if she had just
kept her mouth shut she never would have seen the inside of the Elko County Jail
let alone face the prospect of spending the rest of her life in prison.
From the minute the news broke, the overwhelming feeling from
those who knew her was that far from a criminal mastermind with ice water for
blood. Rather many in town believe Toni Fratto was confessing to a crime she
didn’t and some say could not have committed at the behest of her jailed lover.
Patten certainly had the opportunity to make such a request.
Fratto visited him as often as twice a week making the four hour round trip to
Elko on Wednesdays and Sunday ever since Patten was arrested on May 7th.
She also talked to him at least once a day thanks to a
collect calling plan purchased by her father. The frequent and continued
contact the girl had with Patten also suggested and alternative reason why
Fratto knew details of the murder not released to the public. Patten may have
simply told her.
Far from the black widow who directed Patten to kill a
romantic or social rival, friends and acquaintances of both Fratto and Patten
describe her as a mouse of a girl who was “barely
there”.
Indeed some friends relate the Patten held the whole Fratto
family in thrall and what official records exist tend to support the
allegation.
He moved into the home after his own parents threw him out
and bragged to classmates how he verbally and emotionally abused his benefactors.
So complete was his domination of the family, friends
relate, that even when Patten was caught on school grounds strangling Toni
Fratto just months before the murder, Claude and Cassie Fratto refused to press
criminal charges and allowed the very disturbed young man back into their home.
Regardless of whether Fratto’s confession is true it may
have already achieved the effect of taking the death penalty off the table at
least in regards to Kody Patten on the other hand it may very well put Fratto
on death row herself.
Toni Fratto, second
suspect in Nev. murder of Micaela Costanzo, arrested
By Camille Mann -
CBSNews.com, May 6, 2011
(CBS/KUTV/AP) WEST WENDOVER, Nev. - Police have arrested
teenage girl Toni Fratto, the second
suspect in the shovel slaying and shallow burial of 16-year-old Micaela
Costanzo just west of the Nevada-Utah state line, March 3.
Fratto, 19, is the fiancée of Kody Patten, who was arrested
in early March and who police say confessed to striking Micaela with a shovel.
Fratto was named as the second suspect in the murder after a taped phone
conversation surfaced, according to CBS affiliate KUTV.
In court on Tuesday, Patten's attorneys presented an audio
recording of Fratto. The recording was made April 22, when Fratto was on the
phone with Patten and said she used a deadly weapon and was involved in the
disposal as well as the destruction of Micaela's personal property and other
potential evidence, according to police, the station reports.
Police say Fratto also provided details of the crime in the
recording that are not public knowledge and would only be known by someone
involved.
Fratto was arrested Wednesday night and faces the same
murder charges as her boyfriend, Patten.
Kody Cree Patten, 19,
gets life without parole for murdering a classmate in Wendover
By Pat Reavy - Deseret
News.com, August 24, 2012
ELKO, Nev. — "Your
blood runs cold, Mr. Patten. There shall be no possibility of parole."
Those words from Elko District Judge Daniel Papez Friday
prompted cheers from the family of murdered West Wendover High School student
Micaela "Mickey" Costanzo.
The final chapter in the 2011 brutal killing of 16-year-old
Micaela was written Friday in an Elko courtroom when 19-year-old Kody Cree
Patten was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Papez said he considered Patten's young age when handing
down his sentence. But what outweighed that concern was the crime itself. Papez
called it "the worst kind of
murder."
"Micaela’s murder
was carried out with gruesome, vicious, merciless violence," Papez
said, while also noting that it was premeditated.
Patten, clean-shaven and wearing a suit, stood with his
hands behind his back and showed little to no emotion as the sentence was
issued.
Earlier in the hearing, Micaela's father pointed at Patten
from the witness stand and angrily demanded answers.
"You had no
right, kid. You had no right to do that. I got a question for you though: Why
don't you tell me why. Why'd you harm her?" Theodore Anthony Costanzo
Jr. asked.
The prosecutor had to quiet Costanzo, telling him to stick
to answering questions.
When asked what sentence he believed should be imposed, the
father replied: "I want him to walk
into that penitentiary, and when he leaves it, he'll be in a box."
When it was Patten's turn to address the court, he took
several long pauses, appearing to collect his thoughts — sometimes reaching for
a tissue — and told the court he continues to go over in his head what happened
that day.
But he couldn't answer why he killed the girl.
"I've sat and
tried to go over it and over it. There's no reason, there's no why, no
justification for it. Sorry's not enough. I apologize for everything. I'm
sorry," he said.
"I can't describe
what happened, can't even begin to describe it," he said. "Sorry isn't enough. … I wish I could
ask for forgiveness, but I don't feel I deserve it."
During his rambling speech, Patten said Micaela "was always good to me" and "anything a friend could ask for."
"The more I stand
here, the more I see how horrible this is," he said. "Her family didn't deserve it. Mickey
didn't deserve it."
Patten then recited part of a poem that Micaela had written,
talking about a glimmer of beauty beneath "all
the ugly" in the world.
"Micaela was the
glimmer of beauty for people," Patten said, which caused her mother,
Cecilia Costanzo, to cry even harder.
In May, Patten accepted a plea deal, pleading guilty to
first-degree murder in exchange for being spared the death penalty.
The deal came after co-defendant Toni Fratto—Patten's
former girlfriend struck her own plea deal in April and also avoided a
possible death penalty, pleading guilty to a reduced charge of second-degree
murder. Fratto, 19, was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of
parole. She will serve a minimum 18 years in prison before being eligible to be
released.
Though both defendants have pleaded guilty, each side still
has very differing accounts of what actually happened, each maintaining that
the other party was more culpable.
Patten is accused of kidnapping Micaela after school on
March 3, 2011. He and Fratto then drove Micaela to a remote area in the desert
near the Utah-Nevada border and killed her. Patten allegedly shoved Micaela to
the ground, causing her to hit her head on a rock and go into a seizure,
followed by Fratto hitting her on the head with a shovel. Fratto's attorneys
say their client then sat on Micaela's legs while Patten slashed her throat.
Patten, however, has denied being the one who cut Micaela's throat, maintaining
it was Fratto.
Patten wrote a letter to the judge as part of the
pre-sentence report. In it, Patten wrote he did not intend for Fratto to cut Micaela's throat.
"The evidence
does not support your statement," Papez said, accusing Patten of
trying to minimize his role in the crime. "I
don't believe you. You were the primary perpetrator of the murder.”
"Micaela's sweet
voice will never be heard again," the judge continued. "Her sweet smile will never be seen
again because of you, Mr. Patten. Your acts of planning this murder, carrying
out this murder in such a vicious manner, and then attempting to cover up this
murder are hardly the acts of an impulsive, irrational teenage mind. You
always had the ability to stop the wheels of this murder you put into motion,
Mr. Patten."
After killing her, Patten and Fratto buried Micaela in a
shallow grave and took some of her possessions to the Utah side of Wendover to
burn. Papez said the couple then "callously"
washed up and went to Wendover to get a drink.
Micaela's mother and sisters said time has only made things
worse since Mickey's death. They said they continue to have nightmares.
"This man should
never see the light of day or be given the chance to see the light of day ever
again," said Cecilia Costanzo. "He
took my daughter's life. He didn't give her a chance to finish high school or
to get married or to have children or to go to college. He had no right to take
her. So he has no right to have a life or have anything. … He should never be
free to do anything ever again."
"I can't find joy
anymore. I think it's so sad. It makes me wonder when anything will be OK
anymore," said Micaela's sister, DJ.
Members of Patten's family, including his mother and father,
also spoke to the court. Each described Patten as a caring person whom they
could never imagine was capable of such a horrific act.
"It's very unlike
him. Micaela was our friend, we loved her. She was Kody's best friend,"
said Donna Patten, Kody's mother.
Patten's family reminded the court that Kody had EMT
training and had already been accepted to join the U.S. Marines and was even
given a deployment date before the murder.
His attorney, John Ohlson, implored the judge to uphold the
principle of "hope, redemption and
compassion" and give Patten both a chance to prove and improve himself
while in prison.
Outside the courtroom, all parties left without comment.
Cecila Costanzo briefly said she was happy that "justice had been served" before walking arm in arm with
her family to their cars in the parking lot to drive back to Wendover.
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