NAME: FRATTO, TONI COLLETTE
ADDRESS: 3268 WEST SKY VIEW DRIVE
CITY: W.WENDOVER ST: NV ZIP: 89883
DOB: 10/30/1992 AGE: 18 RACE: W SEX: F NATIONALITY: US
HGT: 502 WGT: 90 HAIR: BRO EYE: BRO SKIN: LGT
ARRESTING OFF.: BURNAM, DONALD AGENCY: WOPD
PLACE OF ARREST: WWPD
U CHARGE: MURDER TYPE: F COURT: EC-JC
Late breaking news Toni Fratto was arrested Wednesday night and booked on one charge of open murder for the killing of Micaela Costanzo.
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Toni Fratto 18 year old West Wendover girl and girlfriend to admitted killer Kody Patten is expected to be arrested this week for her role in the abduction/murder of 16 year old Micaela Costanzo revealed sources close to the investigation.
Fratto’s arrest comes just day after Patten’s Attorneys, John Ohlson of Reno and Jeff Kump of Elko, presented to Judge Andrew Puccinelli and District Attorney Marc Torvinen an audio recording they claimed was from Toni Fratto confessing that she was not only present during Micaela Costanzo’s murder but was an active participant in the slaying of the girl.
The bombshell was dropped in a special hearing in Elko District Court Tuesday. The only problem is that the girl may have an airtight alibi.
According to attorney Jeff Kump the recording was made after Fratto met him at his office claiming to have information on the crime what followed according to sources close to the case was confession complete with details only known to investigators.
Fratto, a West Wendover senior (home schooled), is Patten’s girlfriend who lived with the admitted killer in her parent’s home. Her parents Claud and Cassie Fratto are prominent members of the community with Claud as the chief account in the City of West Wendover and Cassie an elected member of the West Wendover Recreation District.
The two are also prominent members of the local LDS church both serving in positions of authority and sponsored Patten’s conversion to the LDS faith last year.
Patten was arrested in the early morning hours of Monday March 7th, 2011 following an all night interrogation by West Wendover police shortly after he admitted killing Mickie Costanzo.
According to the police report Patten in a borrowed SUV somehow got Costanzo into the vehicle shortly after she emerged from the girls locker room after practice at around 5 pm on Thursday March 3rd. Instead of driving her home, Patten drove out to the gravel pits about five miles west of town. There he told Police Detective Donald Burnham they fought. At just under 6 feet and weighing 190 lbs, Patten towered over the barely 5 foot tall Costanzo and outweighed by over 80 pounds.
According to the report Patten confessed to shoving the girl who then fell hitting her head on the cars bumper. Patten then told Burnham he pushed Costanzo again, and again she fell down and hit her head on a rock. Patten then said he panicked when Costanzo went into convulsion and struck her with a shovel that happened to be in his hand. The shovel sliced through the young woman’s neck. Patten then buried the young woman, drove home, went to bed and went to school the next day.
Nothing in Patten’s statements indicates that he was accompanied by Toni Fratto before during or after the murder. And according to the minutes of a March 3rd Recreation District meeting Fratto’s whereabouts from 6 pm to 6:53 pm were documented as being in the audience during the meeting (see page two).
The girl’s presence at the meeting was also corroborated at the meeting by several witnesses.
“I really have no problem with the minutes,” said Patten’s Attorney John Ohlson. “Anyone who listens to the tape (of her confession) wouldn’t have a problem either.”
There is at least one hour between Micaela Costanzo’s last appearance on West Wendover High School video surveillance system and the start of the meeting. And the distance to the gravel pits where she was murdered is less than a 10 minute drive.
Because her body was found two and a half days after she was killed fixing a time of death to the minute or even hour is impossible.
Torvinen took the Fratto’s confession and handed it over to lead detective on the case Sergeant Kevin McKinley of the Elko County Sheriff’s Department. According to informed sources search warrants for Toni Fratto’s cel phone records and other personal property were executed Wednesday morning and the police report indicating here involvement in the murder was delivered to the Elko District Attorneys off Wednesday afternoon. Her family have already retained an attorney, Elko Criminal lawyer David Lockie.
According to McKinney the Fratto’s recorded conversation with Kump along with additional evidence gathered by police will be enough to justify an arrest of the girl.
“I expect an arrest warrant to be issued as early as today (Wednesday)” McKinley said.
Fratto is described as a shy withdrawn girl whose major contact to the outside world was Patten and her parents.
Home schooled for the past two years in an agreement with West Wendover High School and the Elko County school District she and Patten were said to have been in a relationship for almost four years and when Patten left his parents house two years ago he moved in with Fratto’s family.
By all accounts Fratto’s parents were oblivious to the point of denial that there was anything wrong with the future killer even after he reportedly attempted to strangle their daughter on the grounds of WWHS earlier in their senior school year.
Then a juvenile Patten was suspended and than readmitted to the high School where he was put on probation.
According to one well placed source Patten was just one infraction away from being expelled at the time of the murder and like his girlfriend Patten also withdrew from the school’s social life in his senior year.
According to various accounts Fratto was deeply jealous of Costanzo dating back to a junior high school relationship Costanzo had with Patten several years ago.
Her confession to Patten’s attorney could either make her liable for the death penalty or remove that sword of Damocles now hovering over her boyfriends head.
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.
If Fratto’s involvement in the crime is proven beyond a reasonable doubt the prosecution could argue for the death penalty on at least three of those conditions. Her involvement also adds weight to the premeditated aspects of the case. However her involvement may also be as a mitigating factor for Patten especially if Fratto not Patten struck the fatal blow as the tape is said to indicate.
Apart from death penalty considerations, Fratto’s arrest also calls into serious question the police investigation in the case.
According to sources the 18 year old girl was interview just once by West Wendover police and after Patten’s confession was not contacted again until this week’s bombshell was dropped. During that one interview according to sources she also lied to investigators that she was with Patten the whole evening of Thursday March 3rd when according to the minutes of the Recreation District they were separated by at least an hour.
Now the crux of the case will not be on what Toni Fratto was doing between 6 pm to 7 pm but what she was doing the hour before.
