Attorneys for both Toni Fratto and Kody Patten may have something to be happy about with the order of the trials for the two confessed teen killers.
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Monday White Pine District Judge Dan Papez set the trial dates with Fratto going up first on February 12th followed by Patten exactly a month later.
Both are accused of killing 16 year old Micaela “Mickey” Costanzo on March 3rd.
“It gives the chance to tell our story first,” said Fratto’s lead attorney John Springgate of Reno.
And according to testimony given in the preliminary hearing Springgate and co-counsel David Lockie of Elko have a heck of a story to tell.
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Fratto confessed to the murder of Costanzo six weeks after the girl was killed and not to police but to Kody Patten’s lawyers John Ohlson of Reno and Jeffrey Kump of Elko in Kump’s office.
Patten’s attorneys recorded her confession and released it with great public fanfare during a hearing for Patten in Elko District Court in April.
Fratto was arrested two days later and like her boyfriend was charged with open murder, qualifying her for the death penalty.
Both in comments to the press and in their clients preliminary hearing both of Fratto’s attorneys made it clear that Fratto’s confession is not only not true, but that the girl was duped and or bullied to give it first by Patten’s father Kip and then by Ohlson and Kump.
In an almost unprecedented action Ohlson and Kump will in all likelihood be called to testify against Fratto during the girl’s trial by the prosecution.
“You can go back 50 or 100 hundred years even to the first days of Nevada as a state and you won’t find a case like this,” said a source close to the case.
But while Patten’s attorneys have come under harsh criticism by Fratto’s lawyers, it was clear at least during the preliminary hearing were sharpening their legal knives for Kip Patten who was once considered Fratto’s future father-in-law and now depending on who one asks is either a bully who beguiled or forced a girl to confess to a murder she did not commit or man doing the right thing for truth and justice.
Fratto’s attorneys strongly implied that for the six weeks he drove Toni Fratto to visit his son at the Elko County Jail, Kip Patten pressured the girl to confess to the murder.
Indeed the two sets of defense attorneys and the evidence offered in fratto’s preliminary hearing agree on many of the details of the events leading up Fratto’s confession, the major bone of contention is whether the girl actually did commit murder or is a naive, gullible red herring.
Up first Fratto’s attorneys will present their version first and to back it up they have nothing. Nothing in the form of corroborating evidence that puts Fratto at the crime scene when the murder occurred.
Fratto even has a very good alibi that puts her elsewhere for two hours from the time Micaela Costanzo was abducted 5 pm to shortly after 7 pm when Patten picked her up driving a borrowed.
Patten’s attorneys have implied that they believe the murder took place after 7 pm and district Attorney Marc Torvinen evidently agreed or at least is giving that version the benefit of the doubt. Recently modified charges now leveled at both Fratto and Patten on the district court level now include kidnapping, murder, conspiracy to commit murder and/or kidnapping, murder committed during the perpetration of a kidnapping with the use of a deadly weapon, destroying evidence and attempted willful destruction of evidence.
In a legal sense the mention of kidnapping along with murder is highly significant since it qualifies both for a possible death penalty.
While Fratto’s defense team gets to tell its story first, Patten’s legal team may see a silver lining in the fact that it strengthens a possible change of venue motion.
Winning a change of venue is rare in Nevada, even with the sensational publicity surrounding this case it was considered a long shot. However with Fratto’s trail to be concluded just two weeks before Patten’s trial is set to begin, patten’s lawyers have a pretty good shot at winning such a motion should they want to make it.
The case is sure to generate headline after headline and lead story after lead story on television, the radio and the internet and with such heavy media saturation in such a small community as Elko county a judge may find it impossible to find 12 jurors and two alternates to make up Patten’s jury.
Patten’s attorneys will also have the advantage of seeing the almost entire case the state has their client before his trial even begins.
And should Fratto be found guilty, the stance that Patten only provided the muscle in the crime and that is was Fratto who did the actual killing would be greatly enhanced. His attorneys could argue that their client was at best guilty of second degree murder and should serve a much shorter sentence.
If Fratto is found not guilty Kody Patten view of death penalty would get that much better. Also if the girl walks, an embarrassed DA may go after those who helped her “confess”.
