Toni Fratto was a seventeen year old living in Nevada when she and her boyfriend Kody Patten would murder Micaela Costanzo
According to court documents Toni Fratto was upset with Micaela Costanzo who she believed was attempting to steal her boyfriend Kody Patten
Toni Fratto, Kody Patten and Micaela Costanzo would drive to a remote location. When they arrived Micaela Costanzo was struck in the head with a shovel and her throat was slit. Micaela would then be buried in a shallow grave
Toni Fratto and Kody Patten would be arrested and convicted of the murder
Toni Fratto would be sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for eighteen years
Kody Patten would be sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole
Toni Fratto Current Information
Toni Fratto Case
A Wendover woman has been sentenced to life in prison for her role in the murder of a classmate last March.
Toni Fratto, 19, was sentenced in Elko District Court Monday morning to life in prison, with an additional 20-year enhancement for using a deadly weapon in the commission of the crime.
Fratto will be eligible for parole in 10 years. However, due to Nevada court statutes, even if parole were to be granted in 2022, Fratto would have to serve an additional eight years for the enhancement, bringing the total minimum possible time she could serve to 18 years in prison.
Fratto pled guilty in January to second-degree murder with the use of a deadly weapon in the March 2011 killing of 16-year-old Micaela Costanzo. One of two defendants in the case, Fratto confessed her involvement in the crime last April in an effort to help her boyfriend, Kody Patten, now 19, who had been arrested and charged for the crime.
Costanzo was reported missing after she failed to come home after track practice that afternoon. Hundreds of community members searched for the missing girl, and her body was found two days later in a shallow grave about five miles west of West Wendover, Nev. Costanzo had been struck in the head with a shovel and her neck was cut. Based on evidence at the scene and security footage from West Wendover High School, police questioned Patten and arrested him for the murder after he allegedly confessed to the act.
Fratto told Patten’s attorneys that she had been involved in the crime. She had struck Costanzo in the head with a shovel after Costanzo had fallen to the ground and become unconscious from hitting her head on a rock, and participated in the disposal of evidence, including a knife and Costanzo’s book bag, in a part of the desert northeast of Wendover, Utah, in Tooele County.
Fratto’s prison sentence has now begun, while Patten is awaiting trial for the charges against him, which are for open murder with the use of a deadly weapon. If convicted, Patten could potentially face the death penalty.
Part of Fratto’s plea arrangement was for her to testify against Patten in exchange for a reduction of her murder charge and dismissal of other charges, including willfully destroying evidence of the commission of a felony and attempted willful destruction of evidence of the commission of a felony.
Patten’s trial is scheduled for late July.
http://tooeleonline.com/wendover-teen-gets-life-in-prison-for-murder/