[media id=13 width=320 height=240]
Kody Patten may deserve the death penalty for the murder of Micaela Costanzo but even if she was involved in the crime Toni Fratto should pay for it with her life argued her lawyers in a motion filed this week before District Judge Dan Papez.
[media id=1 width=320 height=240]
Raising points and quotations from Fratto’s confession her attorneys, John Springgate of Reno and David Lockie of Elko argued that even if the confession was valid Fratto does not qualify for the death penalty because the Wendover teen did not commit or admit to any related crime except for the unlawful killing of Mickie Costanzo.
click ling below for full motion
Since it was reinstated the Nevada death penalty is applicable only in murder cases with “special circumstances” including the commission of another felony such as kidnapping, rape or torture. A death penalty is also applicable if the victim was taken from school property or a school related activity.
Both Patten and Fratto confessed to the murder of Mickie Costanzo but gave widely different time lines.
In his confession taken just days after the murder Patten suggest that the killing did indeed take place shortly after 5 pm perhaps no later than 5:30 pm on the afternoon of March 3rd.
Patten also does not mention Fratto even being at the scene of the killing and in a throw away line to detectives says he left the gravel pit after the killing to pick up his girl friend.
In her confession made some six weeks after the murder, Fratto parrots Patten’s words except for the time of the killing putting it well after 7 pm that day. The reason for the difference in time lines is quite simple until Fratto’s where abouts are known from 5 pm to 7 pm and she was not with Patten and thus could not have been murdering Costanzo.
As the latest motion points out again and again in its eight pages Fratto’s confession is especially crucial to the prosecution because other than it, there is simply no evidence linking Fratto to the crime.
Patten is caught on video tape stalking the hell of Wet Wendover High School shortly before Mickie Costanzo disappeared, it was Patten and not Fratto seen driving the borrowed SUV whose tracks were found at the murder scene. Patten’s DNA was found on a bloody shirt at the crime scene.
On the other hand the only evidence against Fratto is Fratto herself.
But, as the motion indicates, even if every word the girl gave is true there is little if anything in it that would merit the death penalty and perhaps not even guilty verdict to premeditated murder.
But while Fratto’s confession implicates her in the murder even to the point of her delivering the killing blow its time line alone makes her accomplice Kody Patten eligible for the death penalty.
In testimony in both Fratto’s and Patten preliminary hearing Celia Costanzo as well as several of Mickie Costanzo’s friends portrayed the victim as a girl who would always answer or return calls from her mother within minutes of receiving them.
The idea that Mickie Costanzo if free to do so would not answer dozens of calls to her phone in two and a half hours is considered impossible.
When Fratto first came forward with her confession it was considered a boon to Patten. Claiming to be the planner and instigator of the murder, Fratto also admitted to delivering the killing blow against the young girl, Patten’s attorneys were painting as a romantic interest.
But if Fratto’s time line is to be believed it will be much easier for district attorney Marc Torvinen to prove Mickie Costanzo was held two to two and a half hours against her will otherwise known as kidnapping by Kody Patten thus qualifying him and for the death penalty.
If on the other hand Costanzo was killed shortly after she went missing proving kidnapping will be much more difficult for the state. That could also mean however that Kody Patten acted alone and the case against Toni Fratto would collapse.
“Toni Fratto was always just a huge smokescreen,” said a source involved in the case. “Without her this is a simple murder of by a sociopath kid of a sweet young girl. She (Fratto) was used by Patten’s side to confuse everyone. But they were probably too smart for their own good. With her time line the DA almost has a slam dunk proving kidnapping and murder but with the other time line Kody patten would have almost certainly had to have acted alone and again be qualified for the death penalty.”
Capitol punishment in Nevada is reserved for premeditated murder with extenuating circumstances which include:
Murder perpetrated by means of poison, lying in wait or torture, or by any other kind of willful, deliberate and premeditated killing.
Murder committed in the perpetration or attempted perpetration of sexual assault, kidnapping, arson, robbery, burglary, invasion of the home, sexual abuse of a child, sexual molestation of a child under the age of 14 years or child abuse.
Murder committed to avoid or prevent the lawful arrest of any person by a peace officer or to effect the escape of any person from legal custody.
Murder committed on the property of a public or private school, at an activity sponsored by a public or private school or on a school bus while the bus was engaged in its official duties by a person who intended to create a great risk of death or substantial bodily harm to more than one person by means of a weapon, device or course of action that would normally be hazardous to the lives of more than one person.
Before she made her confession Fratto was in almost daily contact with Patten. 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 March 7th.
She also talked to him at least once a day. The frequent and continued contact the girl had with Patten also undermines the police report that claims Fratto knew details about the case that were not released to the public. Her attorneys can easily make the case that she knew those details not because she participated in the killing but because Patten 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”.
Even with the confession several observers in the courtroom expressed doubt that a jury would convict the girl for the murder.
Investigators admitted that there was not a scintilla of evidence putting her at the scene of the crime at the time it was said to have occurred.
“There isn’t a foot print, there isn’t a finger print, there isn’t any trace of her at the murder scene,” said one investigator. “This is the damnedest case I have ever seen.”
If she confessed she must have wanted some type of punishment. Anyone stupid enough to admit to a murder they supposedly didn’t commit, should get the death penalty. One less psycho off the streets later on. I’m all for the death penalty and wish it were faster and used more often!
“One less psycho off the streets later on.” So do you mean one more on? Your logic is almost as ridiculous as this sentance.