Teen goes on national TV to express regret for role in murder

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SALT LAKE CITY — A young woman serving a life sentence in prison for the brutal murder of a West Wendover, Nev., teen spoke on national television Friday, telling family members of her victim how "truly sorry" she is.

Toni Fratto is in prison for the murder of her classmate, 16-year-old Micaela Constanzo. She pleaded guilty last month for her part in that March 2011 killing.

Fratto admits to striking the teen in the head with a shovel before she says her boyfriend, Kody Patton, slit the girl's throat. Friday, Fratto offered further explanation and an apology on the daytime talk show, "Anderson."

I want the Costanzo family to know that I am truly sorry for this, because your daughter didn't deserve this.

–Toni Fratto, convicted killer

"I want the Costanzo family to know that I am truly sorry for this, because your daughter didn't deserve this," Fratto told family members of the victim, who also appeared on the show.

She spent nearly an entire hour defending her actions, saying she was abused by Patton and that he was the one who took them out to the desert with the intention of killing Constanzo.

Fratto said she had no intention of hurting anyone.

"If you were put in the situation that I was — and it wasn't like I immediately did it. I stood up there and did not know what to do. He kept pressuring me, kept telling me, ‘It's OK. Just do it,'" Fratto told Cooper.

Both Fratto's mother and sister appeared on the show, along with Constanzo's mother and sister.

There were contentious moments on both sides. But in the year since the murder, both sides have sought to answer one question which has yet to be solved: why?

"She's got to know why. You cannot do something so horrendous and not know why," Micaela's mother, Celia Costanzo, told Fratto.

"But when you're put in the position I was put in, for the physical abuse and emotional abuse, you would kind of understand. But you weren't put through what I was put through," Fratto said.

This episode comes coincidentally on the day when an attorney for the other suspect in this murder case, Kody Patton, announced intentions to enter into a guilty plea. He had been set to go to trial in July, and Fratto was going to testify against him as part of her plea deal.