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ELKO, Nev. (AP) -- Elko County prosecutors have decided to seek the death penalty for two West Wendover teenagers accused of murdering a 16-year-old classmate in March.
The Elko Daily Free Press reports the district attorney's office filed the paperwork this week to make it a capital case after listening to recorded confessions from the two 18-year-old suspects, Toni Fratto and Kody Patten.
Both have pleaded not guilty in the killing of Micaela Costanzo after she left track practice at West Wendover High School.
Investigators say she was beaten with a shovel and her throat cut before she was buried in a shallow grave in the desert.
Fratto's trial is set for February, Patten's in March.
The Free Press says it's the county's first death penalty case in 11 years.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
