Few Letters For Patten, Born Psychopath Case For Leniency?

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Will Kody Patten lose a popularity contest with Toni Fratto?

While his girl friend submitted close to two dozen letters from family and friends appealing for leniency before her sentencing the number of letters Kody Patten will submit could be half that, perhaps fewer.

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.

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Patten’s girlfriend Toni Fratto was sentence this April to 18 years to life on one count of second degree murder after striking a plea bargain with the Elko District Attorney office. Originally facing a first degree murder charge like her boyfriend District Attorney Marc Torvinen allowed the 19 year old teen to plead to the lesser charge in exchange for her testimony against Patten. According to Patten’s own attorney John Ohlson of Reno, Fratto’s testimony would have almost assured his client ending up on death row if the case went to trial.

Less than a week after Fratto was sentenced Patten also accepted a deal. In his case however the only thing Torvinen conceded in the deal was to take the death penalty off the table. Patten faces a possible sentence of life without the possibility of parole.

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.

A number of Kody’s teachers, myself included, argued regularly that he be expelled to protect students. The administration seemed intimidated by his parents,” wrote one of his Junior High School teacher’s on the Advocate’s web page www.coyote-tv.com.

When contacted this week that teacher provided a litany of the younger Patten’s more egregious and memorable offenses.

“This was junior high, pre-teenagers, I never thought I would ever push for the expulsion of so young a kid but he was unbelievable,” the teacher said. “Like I said in my post, his parents mostly his dad Kip fought for him tooth and nail. I am all for dad’s sticking by their sons but it’s a father’s job to raise a good man not a murderer.”

Fratto on the other hand was described as a meek girl who was barely noticed in school. Daughter of pillars of the community Claude and Cassie Fratto, the fact that she had more character references than Patten would not be a surprise.

Patten’s defense may just argue that their client as evidence 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.

Currently, there is no standard test for psychopathy in children, but a growing number of psychologists believe that psychopathy, like autism, is a distinct neurological condition — one that can be identified in children as young as 5. Crucial to this diagnosis are callous-unemotional traits, which most researchers now believe distinguish “fledgling psychopaths” from children with ordinary conduct disorder, who are also impulsive and hard to control and exhibit hostile or violent behavior. According to some studies, roughly one-third of children with severe behavioral problems like the aggressive disobedience also test above normal on callous-unemotional traits.

The idea that a young child could have psychopathic tendencies remains controversial among psychologists. Laurence Steinberg, a psychologist at Temple University, has argued that psychopathy, like other personality disorders, is almost impossible to diagnose accurately in children, or even in teenagers — both because their brains are still developing and because normal behavior at these ages can be misinterpreted as psychopathic.

There Patten may also have a viable argument for a lesser sentence or even an appeal.

Just this week the Supreme Court ruled that giving a life sentence to someone who committed his crime below the age of 18 was cruel and unusual punishment in part because of brain development studies.

While Patten was over 18 at the time of the murder he was barely so and his attorneys might be able to make the case that given his youth and his history life without the possibility of parole would in fact be a death sentence.