Daughter of former Oklahoma City dentist seeks help moving trial
Published: November 10, 2009
FARGO, N.D. — The Oklahoma City woman who has custody of Philip Gattuso’s daughter sent out a plea Friday asking supporters to help her father, who is charged with hiring a man to kill Gattuso.
Regan Williams sent an e-mail to supporters asking them to contact prosecutors on behalf of her father, Gene Carl Kirkpatrick, 63, in an attempt to move his trial to his home state of Oklahoma. Williams asked supporters in her e-mail, which The Forum obtained Saturday, to contact prosecutors in Cass County and Oklahoma. "For those of you who know my dad, you know that he is a good man,” Williams wrote in the e-mail. "We are just asking that whatever justice is going to be served that it be in Oklahoma.” She provided a letter written to prosecutors in each county and asks supporters to sign their names to the letter and mail them. Kirkpatrick, Gattuso’s former father-in-law, is charged in Cass County, N.D., District Court with conspiracy to commit murder and conspiracy to commit burglary. Kirkpatrick is accused of hiring his handyman, Michael Allen Nakvinda, 41, to kill Gattuso because he didn’t approve of how Gattuso was raising his 3-year-old daughter, Kennedy, who is Kirkpatrick’s granddaughter. He was being held without bail in the Oklahoma County jail after refusing to waive extradition. The letter reads: "Gene Kirkpatrick has been an upstanding citizen of Oklahoma for 63 years. He has not had a single blemish on his record. He has served his country in both the Marines and the National Guard. He deserved (sic) to be tried in his home state of Oklahoma.” Gattuso’s brother, Roy Gattuso, has said it frightens him that Kennedy is in the custody of Williams, who is the sister of Gattuso’s late wife. Williams declined to comment. Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater has said he doesn’t plan to file charges against Kirkpatrick or Nakvinda. Federal charges also are a possibility because the alleged conspiracy and crime occurred in different states.
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