Toni Fratto

Case record: Toni Fratto

Background

Toni Fratto was a 19-year-old in Elko District Court, where her parents watched as she dragged her ankle shackles across the hardwood floors.

Micaela “Mickey” Costanzo was a 16-year-old West Wendover High School student who was described as a good student, a basketball player, a track star, the editor of her school’s newspaper, and someone who dreamed of being an author.

Celia Costanzo described how nightmares interrupted her sleep and how she had not been able to bring herself to go to restaurants where she once met her daughter for lunch. She said she could seldom cook at home because she was teaching Mickey to cook when the 16-year-old was killed.

Cassie Fratto said Toni Fratto had started to change in the year before the slaying and that the Frattos allowed Kody Patten to move into their home for about six weeks before Costanzo’s death because they feared their daughter would leave if they did not.

Cassie Fratto said that “We have our Toni back,” and that she had a dream of helping others and helping people who had suffered abuse, or the pain and anguish of having someone take your life away from you.

Claude Fratto, in an email to The Tribune, said they thought “Kody was really trying to put his life in order,” and added that Kody had “always had a lot of problems” and that “The side of Kody which we knew is completely different from the Kody we know now.”

The offence

Prosecutors said Fratto and her boyfriend, 19-year-old Kody Cree Patten, took Micaela Costanzo into the desert outside West Wendover and killed her with a camping shovel.

Fratto admitted that she and Patten kidnapped 16-year-old Micaela “Mickey” Costanzo after school, took her to the desert, killed her, and buried her in a shallow grave near West Wendover, Nevada.

Fratto admitted that she hit Costanzo in the back of the head with a shovel and sat on Costanzo’s legs while Patten slashed her throat.

Judge Dan Papez described the victim’s injuries and told the court that Costanzo “suffered during the attack” and that “It took a long time for her to die. Horrible suffering.”

In court, attorneys and the judge addressed what they described as the question of why the killing happened.

Investigation

Psychological testing showed Fratto had the mental and emotional maturity of a 15-year-old.

A month before the slaying, security cameras at West Wendover High School caught Patten pushing Fratto against a wall, lifting her legs off the ground as he choked her, according to defense attorney John Springgate. Springgate said it was not the first nor last time Patten abused Fratto.

Fratto came forward to Patten’s attorneys and offered a confession.

Springgate told the court there was no forensic evidence linking Fratto to the scene and that it was her confession that led to her arrest.

In a police-related description of Fratto’s confession, she told lawyers that the couple arranged to speak to Micaela after she sent Patten text messages asking to get back together. She said she looked away and then heard a loud thud on the car and later said, “Everything from there on out was kind of a blur to me. It went downhill from there.” She alleged the pair began “freaking out,” asked themselves repeatedly: “What did we just do? What do we do? We didn’t know what we had just done.”

Fratto said the pair drove to a nearby swimming pool to “clean up” and then went to McDonald’s, according to Patten’s father, Kip Patten.

Arrest

Fratto was arrested more than a month after Patten’s March arrest, after she allegedly confessed to Patten’s father and his lawyer.

Police arrested Fratto as the second suspect in the shovel slaying and shallow burial of 16-year-old Micaela Costanzo just west of the Nevada-Utah state line.

Plea and sentencing

Fratto took a plea deal earlier this year that removed the possibility of a death penalty in exchange for her testimony against Patten. She pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of second-degree murder.

In a tearful hearing, Judge Dan Papez sentenced Fratto to up to life in prison, with parole possible after 18 years.

In another description of the sentencing, Fratto avoided a possible death sentence by entering a plea deal in January and pleading guilty to a reduced charge of second-degree murder, with sentencing to life in prison and eligibility for parole.

Fratto also received a 20-year weapons enhancement penalty that would begin after her life sentence was over.

Judge Papez called the murder “horrific a murder as I suspect you will ever see,” and said it was made only worse because Costanzo was as “innocent a victim as you could imagine.”

Judge Papez said:

“This is as violent (a murder) as I’ve seen in 20 years on the bench,”
“The attack on Micaela was brutal, it was vicious, it was violent — all shockingly so.”

Judge Papez also said:

“While there are many facts ... explaining what happened, I don't have any information about why this happened,”
“That's the big question that remains.”

Defense attorney John Springgate said after the hearing:

“Nobody has an answer for that,”
and he offered an explanation for Fratto’s role, saying she was not a “black widow,” but rather a “sheep.”

Springgate argued that Fratto would never have been arrested if she had not come forward and confessed because she felt guilty, and said there was no forensic evidence linking Fratto to the crime.

Springgate also told the judge that psychological profile and pre-sentence evaluation indicated Fratto scored below average in her pre-sentence psychological evaluation and that she was mentally and physically abused by Patten. He referenced the January 2011 incident when security cameras at West Wendover High School recorded Patten slamming Fratto against a locker and strangling her.

As Fratto was sentenced, Micaela’s mother Celia Costanzo asked for the maximum sentence. She told the judge:

“There’s a part of me that’s just been ripped away and I’m not whole.
There’s not a day, not a moment, not a second that I don’t think about her,”

Costanzo said she could not even cook, go to the grocery store, or read books with her grandchildren because those events reminded her of what she used to do with her daughter. She said:

“It’s basically destroyed me,”
and she described how she could not go out for lunch because it was kind of their thing on Mondays and Tuesdays. She said: “With Micaela being gone, there’s a part of me that has just been ripped away.”

Costanzo said Micaela would have graduated in a few weeks and that she was a star athlete on the track team and editor of the school newspaper with aspirations of becoming a writer. She said:

“I don’t have that chance to see Micaela grow to see her become the author, the mom. ... I can’t make this right for Micaela, only the court can,”

Costanzo said her daughter’s death deeply affected her sisters and that her daughter “can’t live in Wendover,” “quit college,” and was “struggling just trying to go on day by day.” She said:

“She’s pulled herself away from everyone because she and Mickey were so close, she just can’t be ...,”

Costanzo said her emotional impacts included having a hard time being around anything that reminded her of Micaela and what they always did together.

Christina Lininger, described as an older sister of Micaela, said she no longer felt safe in her own community and that she was “scared all the time.” She told the judge:

“Now I’m just scared all the time,”
“I beg you to give her the same thing she gave my sister. She didn’t give her a chance, she could have helped her.”

Lininger said she wiped back tears as she mentioned Fratto could call her parents while in jail, but she could never again call Micaela to tell her she loved her.

Micaela’s father, Theodore Anthony Costanzo Jr., told the judge he thought he was “dreaming” and said:

“I wouldn’t know where to start, because I still think I’m dreaming. I think this can’t be happening here,”
“I don’t want nothing good for her, ever. That’s what I say, that’s what I want,”

Torvinen reminded the judge about mitigating evidence and said:

“The central reality of this murder is that the defendant before you acknowledged voluntarily participating in it. It’s as horrific a murder as I suspect you will ever see as a judge.”

Torvinen also called Micaela:

“as innocent a victim as anyone might envision.”

Judge Papez delivered the maximum sentence, and the court audience responded with “yes!” at least once. After the judge and members of Micaela’s family left the courtroom, Fratto bowed her head down to the table, buried her face in her hands, and cried.

Fratto was then allowed a brief conversation with her father before being led away with her hands handcuffed and feet shackled.

Fratto’s apology and statements

Before sentencing, Fratto delivered a tearful apology and told the court:

“I would like to apologise for my actions and the tragedy that has happened. I know what I did was wrong,”
“I’m sorry for what I did to Micaela and for what I did not do, protect her. It does not change what happened. But I do mean I’m sorry.”

In another version of the same apology, she said:

“I know what I did was wrong and therefore I am taking responsibility for my actions,”

She also apologized:

“I’m sorry for what I did and I'm sorry for what I did not do — and that is protect [Micaela].”

Cassie Fratto said when Toni Fratto returned to jail after being away from Patten, she had returned to the person she used to be. Cassie said Fratto told her:

“Mom, I knew I wasn’t coming home.”

Other details

Springgate described Fratto as controlled by “a boyfriend who was jealous and possessive and isolating.”

Springgate said tests showed Fratto had the mental and emotional maturity of a 15-year-old.

Springgate argued that Fratto had no prior criminal history at all even as a juvenile and was an active member in her LDS ward and well-liked in school.

Judge Papez said it was “puzzling that a person like you could participate in such a terrible crime.”

As part of the plea agreement, Fratto may be called to testify during Patten’s trial.

Patten was scheduled to stand trial in July, and in one description he was scheduled to go to trial July 31 on a charge of first-degree murder, with prosecutors saying they intended to seek the death penalty if convicted.

A witness stand exchange involved Cassie Fratto saying “We thought Kody was really trying to put his life in order,” and she also said the Frattos feared their daughter would leave if Patten did not move in.

After sentencing, the record included that Patten’s family spoke to the court in his separate sentencing proceeding and described him as someone they could never imagine was capable of such a horrific act; that information appeared in connection with Patten’s case outcome and did not change Fratto’s own sentence.