[media id=424 width=320 height=240]
Mention this video ad and get 10% (some restrictions apply) at Ely’s Wilson Bates
Toni Fratto is still in the Elko County Jail and will remain there on ‘ice’ until the sentencing of her ex-boyfriend, Kody Patten, July 31.
Fratto could have a starring role in Patten’s sentencing for the brutal slaying of 16 year old Micaela “Mickie” Costanzo.
“I doubt very much that the District attorney will call her as a primary witness during the sentencing.” said a source close to the case. “She will be there to rebut if Patten’s lawyers try to assert that she was the real leader in the murder.”
Fratto pled guilty this January in a plea bargain with Elko DA Marc Torvinen to one count of second degree murder with a deadly weapon enhancement in exchange for her testimony against Patten who was facing a possible death penalty for his lead role in the killing.
[media id=1 width=320 height=240]
White Pine District Judge Dan Papez imposed the harshest sentences he could on the West Wendover teen of life in prison plus 20 years for Fratto’s part in the vicious killing last year of 16 year old Micaela Costanzo.
According to law Fratto must serve at least 10 years of her life sentence before she is eligible for parole and then at least eight years of the enhancement for use of a deadly weapon before she could see a release from prison. With her time already served in the Elko County Jail taken into account Fratto could conceivably serve just 17 more years in prison before she is released.
At the time of her sentencing Patten’s attorney John Ohlson of Reno said that for from being a dupe following Patten’s orders, Fratto actually instigated the murder and that her diaries would prove it.
According to Ohlson the diaries were filled with hateful messages directed toward Mickie Costanzo that at least suggested that Fratto was an equal partner in Costanzo’s murder.
However despite those claims there is little mention of Micaela Costanzo in Toni Fratto’s diaries and nothing to suggest it was Fratto and not Patten who planned the 16 year old girl’s murder according to a source close to the case.
Celia Costanzo may have saved Patten’s life by okaying his plea bargain.
“I think there is a line or two written about a year before the murder,” said the source. “And it is extremely vague just that she (Toni) hated or couldn’t stand her (Micaela). It was really no big deal and if it was a big deal don’t you think the DA would not have gone with the plea bargain he offered her (Fratto)?”
Convincing the judge that their client was not the actual leader in the killing may be the best perhaps only hope for Patten to receive some leniency from the court.
According to the Elko County Clerks office Patten’s attorneys have submitted nothing so far in the form of character references. Scheduled to be sentence July 31, Patten pled guilty to first degree murder of Micaela “Mickie” Costanzo in a case that garnered international attention.
While facing a much harsher sentence for what can be argued is the same crime patten’s support from the community appears to be much less than Fratto’s.
Patten’s dearth of well wishers was not unexpected.
At least from the time he was 10 years old Kody Patten was considered a monster by almost everyone who had to deal with him with the exception of his parents.
“He was just an awful kid,” said one of his elementary school teachers who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “He attacked other students, used vulgar and obscene language. I couldn’t turn my back on him couldn’t even let him sit with the rest of the class. But the worst thing was that when you tried to discipline him his father Kip would come and threaten to sue the school. Kip would argue every single point of Kody’s infractions. Finally instead of suspending him for one thing a wrote out a list. I think the longest was 14 separate major infractions in one week.”
The younger Patten’s behavior was so out of control that he was taken out of the classroom by the time he was in 6th grade and by the time he was in junior high school, teachers actively sought to have him expelled.
But Patten’s pathological violence could be used to implicate Fratto. Patten’s defense may just argue that their client as evidenced by his long history of violent behavior may have been unable to control himself during the commission of the crime and that Fratto used Patten as an attack dog to get rid of a rival. In fact Patten’s attorney could well argue that their client is mentally ill and therefore not deserving of life behind bars.
That theory has found at least some sympathy with Mickie Costanzo’s family which portrayed Fratto’s claim to shared victim hood by patten with derision and disbelief.
In an interview last month Mickie’s mother Celia Costanzo said it is her belief that it was Toni Fratto and not Kody Patten who was the ring leader in organizing her daughter’s murder.
Already that belief may have saved Patten’s life. According to the victim’s mother it was she who gave the okay for the District Attorney to re-offer Patten the plea bargain after Fratto copped her own deal when he was facing trial and a possible death sentenced.