Bio

Toni Fratto was born in 1992 and grew up in West Wendover, Nevada. Her parents are Cassie and Claude Fratto. The family attended the local LDS ward. Cassie and Claude described their home as loving and supportive.

Toni went to West Wendover High School. People who wrote letters about her called her kind, gentle, and a good friend. Schoolmates said she was well-liked. Records noted she had no prior criminal history.

Friends and family said Toni began to change in the year before the events later discussed in court. Her parents allowed her boyfriend, Kody Patten, to move into their home for about six weeks. School security footage showed an incident in which Patten pushed and choked her.

Psychological testing showed Toni had the mental and emotional maturity of a younger teenager. Evaluators scored her below average on some measures. Her mother said that away from the relationship Toni returned to the person they knew before. Cassie also said Toni had hopes of helping others who had suffered abuse.

Murder Story

On March 3, 2011, 16‑year‑old Micaela "Mickey" Costanzo was kidnapped after school in West Wendover, Nevada. Toni Rae Fratto and Kody Cree Patten drove her to a remote area near the Utah‑Nevada border.

Fratto later admitted she had hit Micaela in the back of the head with a shovel. She also said she sat on Micaela's legs while Patten slashed her throat. The body was buried in a shallow grave near West Wendover.

After the killing, Fratto and Patten drove to other sites where some of Micaela's possessions were burned, according to the accounts reported by police and the media. Investigators collected samples from Fratto's home, car and clothing as they worked to corroborate the confession.

Fratto was not a suspect at first. She came forward to Patten's attorneys and to Patten's father and gave a recorded statement. Police arrested her on May 5, 2011.

Fratto took a plea deal that removed the possibility of the death penalty in exchange for her testimony against Patten. She pled guilty to a reduced charge and was sentenced on April 16, 2012.

On April 16, 2012, Fratto was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 18 years, according to court records and news reports. The case drew extensive media coverage and led to a separate trial and sentence for Kody Patten.