Mormon girl Toni Fratto 'helped teenage lover beat his ex-girlfriend to death with shovel'

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Mormon teenager 'helped fiancé  beat his ex-girlfriend to death with shovel' 

  • Young couple 'drove to swimming pool to clean up after killing' - then went to McDonald's
  • 16-year-old was murdered 'because she tried to get back together with ex-boyfriend'

By Fiona Roberts
Updated: 09:11 EST, 16 July 2011

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A Mormon teenager will stand trial for allegedly helping her lover to kill his 16-year-old ex-girlfriend, a judge has ruled.

Toni Fratto, 19, and Kody Patten, 18, are accused of hitting Micaela Costanzo over the head with a shovel, cutting her throat and then burying her body in a shallow grave just outside West Wendover, Nevada.

Prosecutors claim the couple, who were planning to get married, murdered Micaela because she had been texting Patten asking to get back together with him.

Toni Fratto Micaela Costanzo

Love rivals: Toni Fratto, left, will stand trial for allegedly helping her boyfriend to murder his ex-girlfriend, Micaela Costanzo, right

After the killing the pair drove to a nearby swimming pool to 'clean up' - and then went to McDonald's, the court heard.

Patten was charged just days after the murder in March, but Fratto was arrested more than a month later, after she allegedly confessed to Patten's father and his lawyer.

On Thursday a judge ruled she, too, will now stand trial alongside her boyfriend on murder and kidnapping charges.

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In the taped confession, which Fratto's lawyer has dismissed as 'wholly rubbish', she told lawyers the couple had arranged to speak to Micaela after she sent Patten text messages asking to get back together.

The pair had dated a couple of years previously, but had broken up before Patten and Fratto began their relationship.

In January he was baptised as a Mormon so they couple could get married at the Temple.

Charged: Kody Patten, 18, allegedly murdered his ex-girlfriend after a confrontation over text messages she had sent him

Charged: Kody Patten, 18, allegedly murdered his ex-girlfriend after a confrontation over text messages she had sent him

Fratto told lawyers Patten picked her and Micaela up and then drove out of town because Micaela, described as a popular student, 'didn't want anyone to see us or anything.'

As they drove, Micaela became more and more agitated, according to Fratto.

When they stopped, Micaela and Patten got out of the car to talk. The conversation soon descended into a shouting match, and the pair began shoving each other, Fratto claims.

'Everything from there on out was kind of a blur to me. It went downhill from there'
Toni Fratto

She told lawyers: 'I looked away, and then heard a loud thud on the car.'

Fratto got out and saw the 16-year-old lying on the ground. She said: 'Everything from there on out was kind of a blur to me. It went downhill from there.'

According to Fratto, they started 'freaking out' and they didn't know what to do.

So she allegedly hit Micaela in the back with a shovel, and then together she and Patten cut the girl's throat, she said.

Then they buried her body in a shallow grave and drove away.

Fratto said they were both in shock, and asked themselves repeatedly: 'What did we just do? What do we do? We didn't know what we had just done.'

Grisly end: Micaela's body was found in a shallow grave in the desert around five miles away from West Wendover High School, Nevada

Grisly end: Micaela's body was found in a shallow grave in the desert around five miles away from West Wendover High School, Nevada

According to Patten's father, Kip, Fratto told him the pair went to a local swimming pool to 'clean up' - and then went to McDonald's. 

But Fratto's defence lawyer claims that the recording wasn't credible, and parts of it were completely made-up.

He claims some details of the confession did not tally with how Micaela was killed, and surveillance cameras at the school only show Patten, not Fratto.

He also said Patten's father drove Fratto to his lawyer's office to make her confession when her parents were out of town, as he knew they didn't want her to speak to an attorney without them being present.

Under cross-examination, Kip Patten testified: 'She said she wanted to come forward with it. She didn't want Kody to pay for something they both participated in.'

There is no forensic evidence linking Fratto to the murder, the court heard,

A two-day preliminary hearing for Patten is due to start on August 2.



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