Attorneys for both Kody Patten and Toni Fratto are still waiting for Elko County District Attorney to share a potentially explosive report produced by the Elko County Sheriff’s office.
Working on a tip that there could be a third person involved in the crime Elko County Detectives were in Wendover Friday interviewing potential witnesses about the events on the night of the murder of Micaela Costanzo, March 3.
[media id=13 width=320 height=240]
“We conducted several interviews,” said lead Detective Kevin McKinney confirmed in early September. “They are being typed up and our report will be delivered to the District Attorney’s office. It is up to them if they want to press charges.”
Police agencies are not the only ones interested in this supposed third suspect. Private investigators hired by Toni Fratto’s defense team are also said to be very interested if there is evidence of a third party in the crime.
[media id=1 width=320 height=240]
Fratto and boyfriend Kody Patten confessed to the murder of Mickey Costanzo but at different times and there statements were at least partially contradictory.
Patten confessed first, three days after the murder and just hours after the Costanzo’s body was found in a ravel pit about three miles west of Wendover.
Patten did not mention Fratto being involved in the crime at all and in fact in a throw away line to detectives interviewing him said he left the crime scene “to go pick up, Toni”. Fratto had been attending a meeting of the West Wendover Recreation District where her mother Cassie is a member of the board.
Patten may have told police that he committed the murder within 30 minutes of abducting Micaela “Mickie” Costanzo.
Patten’s time line of the killing is at least superficially at odds with Fratto. In her confession the 19 year old Wendover girl said Costanzo was alive and with Patten when Patten picked up after the meeting at around 7 pm.
Neither of the two confessed killers admitted that Mickey Costanzo was at any time restrained or bound before they killed her.
Where the two confessions agree is in their portrayal of a panic murder when a verbal argument progressed into a physical shoving match that lead to the actual killing.
In Patten’s confession, the young man instead he dealt the killing blow, shovel blade across the neck after Costanzo went into a seizure after striking her head against a rock. In Fratto’s confession, it is she who kills Costanzo by cutting the unconscious girl’s throat with a folding knife.
Speculation that Patten or Patten and Fratto had help at least after the murder had long been rumored. While most reports were simply idle gossip there is some evidence that has fueled the rumor mill.
With the exception of tire tracks belonging to the borrowed SUV that Patten or patten and Fratto used to get to the gravel pit, there is virtually no forensic evidence linking the two to the crime and there is no forensic evidence linking Mickey Costanzo to the vehicle.
“She was a 16 year old girl, she got out of the shower from track practice,” said a source close to the investigation. “She was in the car for any where from 20 minutes to two hours. It should have been full of her DNA.”
Police, prosecution and both defense teams have already commented on the tremendous lake of forensic evidence linking either Patten or Fratto to the crime scene or even the SUV.
“You don’t expect that from a so called panic murder by one or two teenagers,” said a source close to the case. “But the car was almost spotless. There was no trace of Fratto at the scene not even a footprint and very slight DNA evidence putting Patten there either. It just doesn’t fit the knocked drag out fight account in their confessions.”
According to as yet substantiated reports the reason for the lack of evidence is that the killers may have had help after the murder but before Patten’s confession to clean up by an adult who may or may not have known about the killing three days before Micaela Costanzo’s body was found.
Last month the Advocate learned that there would be no new suspects named in the case by the DA’s office however copies of the report have not yet been given to the defense teams of either of the two teens.
Under federal and Nevada law the defense has a right to all information and evidence gathered by the prosecution in criminal prosecutions.
Discovery is the general process of a defendant obtaining information possessed by a prosecutor regarding the defendant’s case. In addition, prosecutors may be allowed to obtain all information a defendant holds regarding a case as well. This inter-exchange of information is commonly known as the “discovery period”, which typically occurs prior to trial, but as evidences surfaces, may extend well into a given trial period. Typically, discovery periods involve the exchange of any information or evidence a prosecutor intends to use against a defendant during trial, which may include:
Crime scene evidence such as photographs and other forensic evidence
Witness, law enforcement, and even defendant testimony, as well as the names, addresses of all intended witnesses at a given trial
Police reports, written or oral testimony from witnesses, booking reports, toxicology results from defendants, and DNA evidence offered by defendants
Any intended expert witness testimony intended to be used during trial
Virtually any other form of “raw” evidence obtained by the prosecutor’s office
It has been over two months since McKinney submitted his report.