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“I was kind of forced,” said convicted murderer Toni Fratto in a jailhouse interview with Anderson Cooper when asked to explain her part in last year’s brutal killing of 16 year old Micaela Costanzo.
Scheduled to be broadcast Friday at 4 pm in Wendover the show will also feature her mother Cassie Fratto and Celia costanzo mother of Mickie.
According to people who saw the show being taped Cassie Fratto is met with at best disbelief and at worst hostility when she insisted that her daughter Toni Fratto was also a victim of her now ex-boyfriend Kody Patten.
Cooper had both mothers on stage in front of a studio audience as well as a satellite hook-up to the Elko County Jail for the Toni Fratto interview.
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According to people who saw the raw taping as well as excerpts on the shows web page Celia costanzo appears to insist it is her belief that it was Toni Fratto and not Kody Patten who was the ring leader in organizing her daughter’s murder.
That belief is also essentially a pillar of Patten’s defense strategy. Just how good it will be could be seen this summer when Patten is tried for the killing.
Apart from the theories around the actual killing Cassie Fratto is said to be pressed time and time again by Cooper to apologize for her daughter’s role in the killing. And time and time again Fratto equivocates still insisting that her daughter was also a victim in the crime.
The Fratto’s claim to victim hood also had no effect at her sentencing two weeks ago when White Pine district Judge Dan Papez gave her the maximum sentence he was allowed to by law.
“In my 20 years on the bench this is a vicious and brutal crime as I have seen,” Papez said. “Yet you came from a good home, You were well liked at school and were active in church as these letters say. There are lot of facts in this case regarding the How?, But there is nothing that answers the Why?”
While referencing the letters Papez made no mention of Fratto’s Parole and Probation pre sentence report. It was a telling omission. According to sources close to the case the P & P report recommended just 32 months minimum on the weapon enhancement part of Fratto’s sentence.
Under Nevada Sentencing Guidelines and Fratto’s plea bargain, Papez had no discretion on Fratto’s ten years to life sentence for second degree murder. He did however have some on the weapons enhancement part of her sentence and the White Pine county Judge invoked the stiffest penalty he could 96 months to 240 months.
Starring CNN newsman Anderson Cooper the Anderson talk show is vastly different from the news show Anderson Cooper 360.
According to the 360 website, Cooper often anchors the 360 program from the site of a major news story, such as his extensive coverage from New Orleans and the Gulf Coast in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the BP Oil Spill, as well as Port-au-Prince after the 2010 Haiti earthquake.
Frequent analysts and contributors to the show include CNN’s Chief National Correspondent John King, Chief Political Correspondent Candy Crowley, Senior Political Analyst David Gergen, Congressional Correspondent Dana Bash, Senior Business Correspondent Ali Velshi, Washington, DC Bureau Correspondent Joe Johns, David Mattingly, Investigative Reporters Randi Kaye and Gary Tuchman, Special Investigations reporter Drew Griffin, and Legal Analyst Jeff Toobin. Other contributors include radio talk show host Roland Martin, truTV’s legal analyst Lisa Bloom, terrorism expert Peter Bergen, Senior International Correspondent Nic Robertson, and addiction medicine specialist Dr. Drew Pinsky.
Anderson is more along the lines of Donohue or Oprah featuring less than breaking news sometimes edging close to if not crossing the line to appealing to a more prurient interest.
The show featuring the Fratto’s and the Costanzos is billed as JAILHOUSE INTERVIEW: Daytime Exclusive: Inside the Jailhouse with a Teen Killer.