DateLine Left Out Important Info on Crime Say Lawyers

For the murder of Mickie Costanzo Kody Patten will never see freedom, Toni Fratto just might after serving just 18 years in prison.

While many Dateline NBC viewers have questioned the justice behind the disparate sentences, there might have been fewer expressions of outrage had somewhere in the two hour long program that Kody Patten kidnapped Mickie Costanzo and held her against her will while waiting for Toni Fratto to join them and help commit the murder.

“Yeah they kind of left that part out,” said Fratto’s attorney John Springgate of Reno.

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Springgate and fellow attorney David Lockie declined to be interviewed for the program but were very interested viewers when it aired Friday night.

“After I saw it I was very glad that I did not consent to an interview,” Lockie added. “The program also didn’t mention that anything about the lack of evidence connecting Toni to the murder. I don’t think my client got off easy and that District Attorney handled both plea negotiations very well.”

Both of her attorneys in the past insisted that Fratto got a lighter sentence because she played a smaller role in the heinous crime than Patten and that the case against her was much weaker than the one against her former boyfriend.

In fact it was Fratto’s very involvement in the crime that could well have put Patten on death row.

Until Fratto confessed Patten’s lawyers were preparing a motion that Patten should not face the death penalty and perhaps not even a first degree murder charge because according to the boy’s confession the murder was neither premeditated nor was there a kidnapping involved.

Patten told police that killing occurred during a fight between himself and Costanzo just minutes after she accepted a ride from him from West Wendover High School.

In a motion Patten’s Attorney John Ohlson argued that given the spontaneity of the crime, while horrible did not rise to the level of death penalty case and perhaps not even a first degree murder charge.

Fratto’s confession rendered that argument moot.

The murder according to Fratto happened two hours after Patten said it did meaning Patten held their victim against her will, kidnapping. Also Fratto added that she and Patten spent days if not weeks planning the killing.

Fratto’s time line was supported by her alibi that she was with her parents at the time Mickie Costanzo was abducted and attended a Wendover Recreation District Board meeting with her mother. It was only after the meeting attended by at least a dozen other people adjourned that Fratto was seen getting into the borrowed SUV Patten met her in at the Wendover Golf Course.

Fratto also told the District Attorney that when she entered the vehicle she saw Mickie Costanzo in the storage part of the SUV looking terrified. (Editor’s note the complete proffer is published on the High Desert Advocate’s here: Fratto – Proffer statement)

After reading Fratto’s proffer to District Attorney Marc Torvinen, Ohlson confided that if Patten had gone to trial he would have most certainly been convicted and very likely could have received the death penalty.

And as for Fratto’s chance for an early parole it is an exceedingly slim one.

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.

But while possible it is considered extremely unlikely that Fratto will serve the bare minimum of her sentence. Most first parole requests especially for violent crimes such as Fratto’s are denied almost as a matter of course. In addition, relatives of the victim are always notified and invited to attend and participate in parole hearings by the board.

Most would agree that anyone from Mickie Costanzo’s family will plead with the board to release their daughter’s killer early is an extremely unlikely scenario. Much more likely would be a passionate request to keep Fratto behind bars longer.

The biggest factor in just how long Toni Fratto will remain behind bars is of course Toni Fratto and even the most generous assessment of the girl’s character does not bode well for an early release.

Fratto a girl with no history of any child abuse from a large family and a loving home and a devout religious upbringing helped commit the most violent, vicious murders in Wendover’s history.

While her few defenders have blamed Kody Patten’s influence on the girl, the fact remains that Fratto came from a place few inmates in the Nevada woman’s prison can imagine let alone dream about.

And yet surrounded by this broad deep support network, Toni Fratto slaughtered a 16 year old girl because as suggested by her psychological report Kody Patten told her to or as suggested by Patten’s lawyers Fratto was cold calculating evil girl.

Whether as sheep or black widow Fratto’s personality does not bode well for keeping out of serious trouble at the Florence McClure Women’s Correctional Center.

The prison located in North Las Vegas houses all Nevada women felons from those convicted of so called victimless crimes to the most brutal vicious women in the state.

According to its website there are currently 880 inmates in the facility which has the capacity for 950. While the prison boast several rehabilitation programs entry into them is reserved for good nonviolent inmates.

Although not as stressful or as violent as a men’s prison the facility has seen its share of inmate on inmate violence and even inmate on staff violence.

If Toni Fratto is a sheep there are easily over 100 female Kody Paten’s at Florence McClure to get her to do their bidding and if she is a black widow she will be one among many.

Either way Fratto could rack up a list of infractions that would kill her chances of an early release.

The enhancement part of Fratto’s sentence also puts her in the precarious position of being on parole while in prison. The eight year clock on the weapon enhancement only starts ticking after she wins parole on her second degree murder conviction. If she commits another crime or commits an infraction grievous enough to merit the revocation of her parole, the enhancement clock stops until or if she wins parole again for second degree murder.

“People look at the minimum time she could serve and might feel it isn’t enough,” said an attorney close to the case. “But that is the minimum if she becomes a model prisoner. Yes it is possible. But the thing is she already proved she was anything but a model citizen.”

A prison official interviewed ten years ago put it this way.

“For a very few of the inmates here, the minimum is a real goal and they keep their noses clean,” he said. “But you have to understand you aren’t dealing with normal people. They really don’t have control over their impulses. Most of the inmates here will serve everyday of their maximum sentence.”

In Fratto’s case her maximum is life.