2 confessions paint different pictures in killing of Wendover student

ELKO, Nev. — Kody Cree Patten was ordered Wednesday to stand trial in the death of a fellow West Wendover High School classmate.

But based on taped confessions from Patten and his fiancée and co-defendant, Toni Fratto, there are two very different versions of what happened that a jury will have to sort through.

In an emotional interview with police on the night he was arrested, Patten confessed to pushing 16-year-old Micaela Costanzo twice and hitting her over the head with a shovel after she went into a seizure. He never mentioned Fratto being present during the killing and didn't mention the use of a knife to cut Micaela's throat.

Patten also told his father that he didn't actually kill Micaela, Kip Patten testified Wednesday.

Fratto, in her taped confession, said she was the one who hit Micaela over the head with a shovel and said both she and Patten cut the girl's throat.

While the couple did not point fingers at each other during their interviews, their attorneys are now doing just that. Each is claiming the other holds more, if not all, of the culpability for Micaela's death.

Both Patten, 18, and Fratto, 19, are charged with kidnapping Micaela on March 3, driving her to a remote area in the desert outside of Wendover and killing her.

According to amended information filed in Elko District Court Tuesday, both Patten and Fratto now face six charges: kidnapping, murder, conspiracy to commit murder and/or kidnapping, murder committed during the perpetration of a kidnapping with the use of a deadly weapon, destroying evidence and attempted willful destruction of evidence.

Kip Patten testified that on the same night his son gave the tearful confession to police, he also whispered to him when they were alone that he didn't deliver the fatal blows.

"He said he didn't actually kill her," Kip Patten testified.

"I said, 'What?' and he said, "Nevermind,'" Kip Patten said, adding that he didn't fully understand or realize what his son was saying then because he was wrapped up in the emotion of the situation.

The father said he has subsequently asked his son several times why the killing occurred, but his son either shrugged his shoulders or failed to give an explanation. The last time he spoke with Kody, about three weeks ago, his son said, "Dad, I don't know what answers you want me to give you because I don't have anything else."