Transcript of Let’s Make a Deal

Detective Donald Burnham was stumped. Yes, decidedly stumped. Because even though Cody and Tony were securely locked up and awaiting trial, there were things, important things, he just didn't understand about the murder of that poor young woman out in the desert. Two mysteries in particular. Which of those killer kids was driving the bus, so to say? That is, which one pronounced sentence on Mickey Costanzo? Seemed like one of them had to be more in charge than the other. Or maybe not. But for now, it seemed a reasonable hypothesis. And the second mystery could be expressed in one 3-letter word: why? Why kill Mickey, that smart, sweet, popular young woman that never harmed a living soul? There was possibly one way to start answering those questions. Call it triangulation via cell phone. Buried in the phone records of Tony Fratto and Cody Patton was a trove of digital data recorded the day Mickey was taken. That is, who texted whom and when and where. Here's Detective Donald Burnham.

There was conversations and texts between Tony and Cody from the beginning of the morning until up till 7 o'clock.

How many calls are we talking about?

Approximately over 100.

Wow. So they were just constantly in communication?

Definitely, all day. They both knew each other's whereabouts and what was going on.

111 calls and texts, to be precise, over the course of 10 hours, except for one particular window of time. Burnham and private investigator Bill Savage were convinced that the activity and its timing could tell them something, especially when they discovered that Cody and Micki were also talking and texting just before Micki vanished. Here's Bill Savage.

We know Cody picked Micki up at school. We know that Micki didn't call like she regularly did. Phone had to have been taken away from her somehow.

As Savage kept digging through those cell records, he noticed that activity on Cody's phone dropped dramatically around 5:15 PM, about the time Mickey went missing. Then just a few sporadic calls and texts between Cody and Tony up until 7:00 PM. Nothing at all like the flurry of texts constantly pinging earlier in the day. So 5:15 to 7:00, what was Cody doing when he was off his phone? Savage had a theory.

Somewhere in that hour and 45 minutes, Cody tie-wrapped Micki's arms and hid her way in the back of the Trailblazer.

And then during that window between 5:15 and 7:00 PM, Well, this is Tony's version of events.

I had gotten a text saying that he had had her and I didn't believe him.

Wait a minute. I don't understand that.

Saying that he had Michaela and he said that he was out somewhere in the desert and that he had her in the car with him. So I told him, you know what, come get me. I just had a knot in my stomach. I didn't know what was going on inside his head.

I'm Keith Morrison, and this is Five Miles from Home, a podcast from Dateline. Episode 5, Let's Make a Deal. It was Christmas time in West Wendover, Nevada. The casinos on the Little Strip love the holidays. and their bright lights burst out across the nighttime desert. Even City Hall was aglow. Neighbor after neighbor lit the trees brought in from far away and sang the happy carols. But not the Costanzo family. Not Celia. Not now.

Christmas Day, it was not fun for me. It's not the same. And I don't ever think that's gonna go away, as much as I try.

Cody Patton and his fiancée, Toni Fratto, spent the holidays in jail, of course, awaiting their respective murder trials. On New Year's Eve, just about 10 months since the murder, Cody turned 19. No one brought cake. How different his life had become. Just one year earlier, he had moved in with Toni and her family and was baptized into the Mormon Church and was planning their wedding. And now Cody lived— existed might be a better word— in the shadow of the death penalty. But as the new year began, Cody got a birthday gift of sorts. His lawyer, John Olson, had been working behind the scenes with the D.A. to get him a deal— plead guilty and get, in exchange, a long prison sentence with a chance at parole someday and no death penalty.

That was the safest way to go. That was the way that would present at least a possibility that Cody would see daylight again. And it would take the death penalty off the table.

In Cody's situation, that was a good deal, but the best he could hope for. There was a catch, however. Cody would have to testify against his fiancé, Tony Fratto. In his confession to police, you may remember, he never even hinted Tony played a part in the murder. Now he'd have to reveal what really happened. And he decided he would do it. So 2½ weeks after his birthday, Cody and his attorneys met with the district attorney, ready finally to tell the whole story. And then suddenly, he changed his mind. He simply refused to implicate Tony at all. Instead, he said, Cody Patton decided to turn down the deal and take his chances with a jury. And then the very next day, the DA offered Toni Fratto a deal. Well, not the same deal. Better, said attorney John Olson.

She was given a plea bargain to second degree in return for her cooperation and statement and agreement to testify.

Testify against Cody. Tell all the terrible things he did. She would not only avoid the death penalty, but just maybe get a chance at parole when she would still be young, in her 30s. We were not in on the plea deal at all. That was a surprise to us. These are Toni's parents, Claude and Cassie Fratto.

It happened very quickly and was because Cody was going to do a plea deal. And then backed out of it. And her attorneys talked to her, and Toni said, "You know what? Enough is enough.

The truth needs to be told, and I'm going to tell it." So on a chilly January day in 2012, little Toni Fratto was led from her jail cell to an office at the sheriff's department. To tell her story for the record. And there, face to face with the DA, she promised to tell the God's honest truth about who did what out there in the desert and why. So would she. It's a classic technique straight out of the police playbook and Criminal Justice 101. Got two suspects? Get one to take a deal and then rat on the other. Though rat on might not be the phrase the DA would actually use. The technique certainly helps crack a lot of cases. Takes a load off the legal system, too. And it certainly looked like it would help solve the murder of Mickey Costanzo. So now, in the sheriff's office, surrounded by lawyers and cops, Toni Fratto told her story to the district attorney. A whole new story. A very different story. Of how her fiancé, Cody Patton, after threatening and abusing her, forced her to witness and even help commit the murder.

I'm a person to tell the truth. And deep down, I wanted people to know the truth because I knew Cody wasn't going to come forward.

For 3 hours, Toni unloaded on Cody. How Cody was upset with Mickey. How he hated the sound of her voice. How things were building up. And then one detail of her story that did not change. The evening of March 3rd, that text message from Cody.

All it said was, "I have her." And I didn't believe him. He ended up sending me a picture of Michaela.

And what did you see in this picture?

I saw Michaela in the, like, the backseat. You could tell that she was Very scared.

Cody picked her up around 7 PM, she said, and she sat beside him with Mickey stuffed in the SUV's cargo area. And then he drove out into the desert. Not a word was spoken, she said. As they approached the gravel pits, said Toni, Cody showed her a text he had typed on his phone.

And it said, we have to kill her.

Did you say anything?

I didn't say anything. I just kind of looked, why? And he just kind of shook his head and didn't say anything.

Cody pulled over, said Toni, ordered her to get out and stand guard to watch Mickey as he dug a hole. Toni said she peeked through the back window and saw Mickey sitting there silently.

I could tell that she had been beaten up.

As Cody finished digging the hole, Toni heard Mickey repeatedly ask, "What's that for? What are you doing with that?" Then Cody took Mickey from the car, said Toni, and pushed her to the ground.

I remember him, like, pulling back her hair saying, "To hit her. Do it. It'll be okay. Just do it." And I went up and hit Nita in the face.

Then Cody punched her and kicked her, said Toni, before producing a knife, which he used to cut off Mickey's sweatshirt.

That's when I had noticed that her arms were tied together.

In what way?

With the zip ties.

"It got worse as Cody issued yet another order," said Toni, "to smack Mickey with a shovel, and Toni said she did on the back shoulder." Must have hurt. "But it wasn't enough for Cody," she said. "He grabbed the shovel from her," she said, "and hit Mickey in the head, and she blacked out. And then," said Toni, "Mickey was suddenly in that hole Cody dug, or grave, as she called it, and he was on top of her." And then I remember going up and holding her leg down so she'd stop kicking.

And then all of a sudden, her legs went completely still, and she wasn't moving.

And though she had told Cody's lawyer she helped cut Mickey's throat, she now told the DA that wasn't true. Only Cody used the knife. She insisted. Cody and Cody alone. Well, she horrified, backed off, but couldn't stop watching and listening.

She had looked up at Cody and asked, am I still here? Am I still alive? And then she kept repeating, just take me home. I won't say anything. Just take me home.

Then Toni said Cody ordered her to get into the car. So she did as he demanded, she said, and listened to the last sounds of Mickey Costanzo's life.

And I kind of glanced over, and she was down on the grave.

And then, said Toni, she watched Cody bury Mickey by himself.

You can't tell me to this day why this happened. No. He never told you that? No.

Cody abused her. Forced her to witness the killing of a friend and refused to tell her why. And with that, Toni Fratto had her deal. The sworn statement she provided would now comprise much of the DA's case against her fiancé Cody Patton. And none of it was like the story she told the day she showed up in her pajamas to see Cody's lawyer. Not the same at all. 3 months later, she was back in court to be sentenced, this time for all to see. Her family, Mickey's family, friends from both sides, a horde of media. Toni's shackles click-clacked on the hardwood floors as she entered the crammed courtroom dressed in jailhouse blues. Then one by one, Mickey's family went to the witness stand to give victim impact statements. Here's Mickey's sister, Christina.

I hope that you give her the maximum that you possibly can.

That's what she took away from all of us.

Mickey's father, Teddy, also spoke, shaking with rage.

I don't want nothing good for her, ever. That's what I see. That's what I want.

Tony's attorneys told the judge that their young client wasn't a black widow, but rather a sheep controlled by a boyfriend who was jealous and possessive and isolating. And then Toni rose from her seat and seemed to weep, though no tears were apparent, and read a short and simple speech which was recorded in the back of the courtroom off mic. I'm sorry for what I did to you, and I was I'm sorry, but I don't. Celia Costanzo, Mickey's mother, was listening just a few feet away, furious.

That was not an apology. It was BS. She did not look at us. She had no remorse. She was not sorry. She looked at a piece of paper. She read what she was supposed to read because it was expected of her. I was— So angry to hear that garbage.

The judge was listening too, of course, and had read all the letters, the many, many letters from Tony's family and friends urging him to give her a lenient sentence. He looked out at all the eyes staring back so intently at him, and he paused and said, "This is as violent a murder as I've seen in 20 years on the bench." The attack on Michaela was brutal. It was vicious. It was violent. All shockingly so. There was a hush. The courtroom leaned forward. And then— the judge sentenced Tony to the maximum penalty the law allowed— life in prison, with an additional 20 years for the use of a deadly weapon. But because she had accepted a plea deal, and that deal was for second-degree murder, The judge agreed to make her eligible for parole after serving a minimum of 18 years, meaning Toni could have a chance of walking free when she would be just 36 years old.

Am I happy that she can get parole at some point?

No. This is Mickey's mother, Celia.

I will be at every parole hearing saying, "Keep her in," 'cause she does not deserve to get out. She deserves to spend the rest of her life in prison, but due to the lack of physical evidence, we got the absolute maximum we could get, and I am happy with that, because the alternative was having a jury possibly set her free. Never in a million years was I gonna let that happen.

Never. Toni looked shell-shocked as she was escorted from the courtroom. Her parents looked on, sad to be sure, but, said the Frattos, with a sense of peace too, as they told the local media. Her father Claude: It's a big burden lifted off of her, I think. So we're pleased with her decision. And mother Cassie: She will be able to move forward with a clean mind.

And heart and nothing to hide.

But as Mickey's family left the courthouse for the long drive back to West Wendover, they couldn't help but think that Tony Fratto was still keeping secrets about how and why Mickey was murdered. Here again is Mickey's sister, Christina.

She still doesn't want anybody to know what really happened, what her real true involvement was.

You think she's more culpable?

Yes. I think that she participated in every minute of planning. And I believe that it was her idea, that she said, "This is what we have to do." She hasn't told it all yet. I do not think so.

So, was there really more to Tony's story? Uh, maybe. Because before she was arrested, Toni left something behind, something in her very own words that just might reveal the real motive for the murder of Mickey Costanzo. They had been sitting in storage for months. Two small plastic containers full of papers and personal items. Nothing fancy or valuable. Not yet, anyway. They belonged to Toni Fratto. She had left them with Cody Patton's parents. Left them there the day she climbed into Kip Patton's car and he drove her to that meeting with Cody's lawyer, where, you'll recall, she confessed to murder. Well, of course, Toni was later arrested, but those plastic containers sat undisturbed until several weeks later, when private investigator Bill Savage got a call from Cody's dad, Kip.

And said, "Bill, I've got these two plastic containers. I've had them in my storage, and there are some diaries in there, and there's some information in there that I believe is important to the case." Diaries.

The personal diaries of Tony Fratto. Little booklets adorned in colorful graphics and handwritten entries and notes. Revealing notes.

In my opinion, there was some valuable information in there with regard to Toni's personality, her feelings.

In these little books, Toni unloaded her fears—lots of those—her hopes, and most particularly, her profound insecurity.

She expressed an attitude of being a very lonely, person with no friends. She commented about Mickey's attractiveness and she, Toni, being very unattractive, and conflicts between herself and Cody, back and forth, breaking up, getting back together, breaking up.

This, for example, she worried, quote, that Cody will leave me for someone else. Cheat on me, that Cody and I won't last forever. We won't get married. She wrote of her own terror that her relationship with Cody wouldn't work out, and if it didn't, there was no point in living anymore. Quote, you don't know how many times I have wanted to overdose on something so I wouldn't have to be here anymore. I'm very angry today, so angry that I'm trying to overdose. After I got off the phone with Cody, I went and took 4 aspirins.

In my opinion, a very troubled young lady.

A troubled young lady who, in many ways, did not feel worthy, I gather. That's correct. And who loved this guy, but at the same time, was terrified of losing him. Yes. Afraid of losing him to the girl he had grown up with, the attractive and popular Mickey Costanzo. Tony wrote, We might as well break up so he can get back together with her. They're perfect for each other. Tears, tears, tears, tears, tears, tears.

I don't know what to do anymore. Toni was jealous of Micki, and if she were out of the picture, then Cody and Toni would be together.

She was everything Toni wasn't. Yes, absolutely. From the diary: They would be so happy together if I didn't steal him away. I know in my heart he really doesn't love me.

I felt that that was a piece of the puzzle which tended to show a motive for this killing.

In fact, said Cody's attorney, John Olson, those diaries were a true revelation. As he read Toni's desperate entries, the whole terrible thing seemed to him to fall into place.

The diaries disclosed a real animosity animosity that Tony had for Michaela. Right. And we were never able to discern how it was or why Cody would have any animosity towards her. He didn't. No. They'd been friends for life. Yes. And no one's ever shown me any reason that Cody had to hurt Michaela. But Tony? Tony had reasons.

So if you had to look for a motive in this crime, the only one that seemed apparent was her animosity.

Was the only one on paper. In her own handwriting.

The conclusion was inescapable in Olsen's mind. It must have been Toni who wanted Mickey dead, not Cody. Maybe her big, strong boyfriend was just doing her dirty work. Do you think it's possible this tiny girl, 5'1", £90, could make that big would-be Marine commit murder? No.

You were a teenage boy once. Yeah. Could your girlfriend motivate you to do things? There's nothing more mindless than a teenage boy full of hormones. Nothing.

In fact, private investigator Bill Savage is convinced Tony was pulling the strings.

My opinion is that although Tony is of very small stature, I believe that Tony exerted a great deal of influence over Cody.

Mickey's family certainly seemed to think so too. And now, as they awaited Cody's trial, they remembered things. Sister Christina recalled how jealous and controlling Toni was.

Toni used to get so upset if Michaela was seen talking to Cody, and she would just yell and holler and say, horrible things to Michaela, you know, "Don't talk to him," and call her every name imaginable.

An intensely jealous young woman, said Mickey's sister, DJ. He couldn't be around girls, especially my sister. That was kind of the indication from her diary that she fought with him all the time, but she really wanted to be with him for the rest of her life, and she was terrified of losing him.

Yeah. She just would be afraid of the fact that they wouldn't be together anymore. Oh, he'll end this with me, and then I'll be the loser.

Then I'll have nobody. She became, like, obsessed with him. And Kody? Well, Kody, said Christina, was on a very tight leash.

I must have been doing laundry or something, and here Tony came walking, and he was like, gotta go. And I was like, you can't even talk to me? He was like, no, I can't. I gotta go. I can't be seen. She'll get mad.

Who was the driving force in that relationship? She was. Why did all of this matter now? After all, Toni had made her deal, had been sent away to serve years in prison for second-degree murder. It mattered because Cody had yet to be tried, and per agreement with the DA, Toni would be the star witness against Cody. Perhaps Olson Could get the diary into evidence, perhaps not. But if the jury bought the story Toni told at her plea hearing, Cody's conviction would be all but assured. A ticket to death row, very possible.

Cody's attorney, John Olson. It wasn't until Toni agreed to take a plea bargain that she became a direct evidentiary threat. To Cody, and we were able to talk with him about what his trial was going to be like with Toni testifying and how it would impact his case. And that part of Toni Fratto's statement in which she said that Kayla sat up in the grave and said to Cody, "Am I still here? Can I go home?" Oh my. You want to hear that when you're sitting on a jury?

Devastating. Yeah. So it was perhaps understandable that soon after Toni got her deal, Olson contacted the DA. Cody would like another chance to plead guilty to Mickey's murder if the state withdrew the death penalty. At sentencing, the judge would decide if he got a shot at parole, and it was agreed. This time, Cody He took the deal and stuck with it.

It was Cody's decision. He was very firm about it, and he was very positive about it when he entered his plea.

For the next several months, Cody waited in his little jail cell, hoping, perhaps praying, he might be given a chance of freedom some distant day. And then, in August 2012, On a hot late summer day, they took Cody to the courthouse. He wore a suit and tie. He was clean-shaven. His hair was as neatly combed as a groom's at a wedding. Inside, a crowd waited, and on the judge's signal, Mickey's family rose to offer their victim impact statements. Mickey's mother, Celia: This man should never see the light of day.

He took My daughter's life.

And Father Teddy.

I want him to walk into that penitentiary, and when he leaves it, he'll be in a box.

Cody's attorney, John Olson, gave an impassioned speech insisting that Toni Fratto was the mastermind of the murder. And since the judge allowed him to make a reference to Toni's diaries, Olson argued that her very own words were as clear a statement of motive as the court could ever see. Then Cody stood up to speak. The room went silent. He turned to Mickey's family, nervous, his voice quivering.

I'm sorry for the unimaginable pain this has caused you.

Weeping now, Cody took long and frequent pauses as he wiped the tears from his his eyes. And for the first time, he spoke publicly about his fiancée, the woman he had protected in his confession, having never revealed that she was with him at the crime scene. Listen to what he said now.

To the court, I just want to state that my co-defendant Tony Ferrara is not all to blame.

Tony was not all to blame? Cody also went on to say, "I am to blame as much as her. As to the motive of this crime, I believe it was jealousy, anger, senselessness." The rest of it, the rest of what he said to Micki's family and the court, was an apology. No more, really. No explanation beyond. There's no reason.

There's no why. I don't have justification for it. Sorry's not enough, but I, I apologize for everything.

He even recited part of a poem written by Mickey, of all people, about a glimmer of beauty beneath all the ugly in the world. And then he sat down while the words "Tony was not all to blame" hung in the air and waited to be told if he'd have a chance to be a free man ever again. Then the judge began to speak.

You always had the power and the ability, Mr. Patton, to stop the wheels of this murder that you put into motion.

Your blood runs cold, Mr. Patton. I sentence you to a term of life in the Nevada Department of Corrections. There shall be no possibility of parole.

There would be no parole after all. As Celia watched Cody taken away in handcuffs, she felt a small measure of satisfaction.

In Cody's case, live in prison for the rest of your life. And every day, I want you to think of what you did to my daughter. I want you to suffer every single day, because dying, the death penalty, you're getting off easy. And I hope every day you live in the hell that I'm living because you took my daughter.

But Micki's sister Christina was conflicted. About the kid, the neighbor whom she knew and once liked and trusted.

Every time I started to say that I would wish that he would be away forever and that he would have the death penalty, I would have to stop myself because I would remember that Cody that has a heart. I know that that does not make this any less tragic and that it doesn't make me want him to get out. I see the good in him. Despite the fact that he killed your sister? I know, it doesn't make sense to me either, but you have to sit there and go, oh my God, this person that I knew so well will never ever have a chance of Anything.

Both Cody and the prison where he will spend the rest of his life turned down our request for an interview. But Tony Fratto? In our next episode, Tony will have a lot to say about that dark night in the Nevada desert. A whole new story about the killing of Mickey Costanzo. Oh, and just possibly we'll get to some truth too. Next time, pointed questions for Tony Fratto. Did you ever say to him, get rid of her?

No, I didn't. Get rid of her or you lose me?

No. And some revealing answers.

When we finally got out to the designated area and everything— What do you mean, the designated area? Where everything went down.

That area was designated. 5 Miles from Home is a production of Dateline and NBC News. Robert Dean is the producer. Brian Drew, Marshall Housefeld, and Meredith Greenstein are audio editors. Molly DeRosa is associate producer. Adam Gorfain is co-executive producer. Paul Ryan is executive producer. And Liz Cole is senior executive producer. From NBC News Audio, sound mixing by Rich Cutler.