N.D. dentist’s kin hopes for death penalty
N. Dakota doesn’t have capital punishment, but federal system does
BY MIKE NOWATZKI
Published: November 6, 2009
FARGO, N.D. — The brother of Philip M. Gattuso says he wants the death penalty on the table for the two Oklahoma men accused in the 49-year-old Fargo dentist’s death.
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N.D. officials take suspect
FARGO, N.D. — The man accused of killing Philip Gattuso arrived in Fargo shortly after 6 p.m. Thursday and was booked into the Cass County jail on charges related to the crime. Custody of Michael Allen Nakvinda, 41, of Oklahoma City was transferred earlier in the day from the Oklahoma County jail to the Cass County sheriff’s office. Nakvinda faces charges of murder, robbery, burglary and theft.
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For that to be possible, the criminal cases against Gattuso’s father-in-law, Gene Carl Kirkpatrick, and the handyman he’s accused of hiring to kill Gattuso,
Michael Allen Nakvinda, would have to be tried in federal court because North Dakota has no death penalty statute.
"I would love for them to be tried in the court ... where they’d have the maximum that justice would allow,”
Roy Gattuso said Thursday. "So, if you’re asking me, death penalty? Absolutely.”
Cass County State’s
Attorney Birch Burdick said it’s premature to speculate on whether the
U.S. attorney’s office will get involved in the case.
"I had an initial conversation with the feds just because of the obvious interstate aspects of what went on here,” he said. Nakvinda, 41, of
Oklahoma City, is charged in Cass County, N.D., District Court with murder, a Class AA felony carrying a penalty of up to life in prison without parole.
Kirkpatrick, 63, also of Oklahoma City, is charged with conspiracy to commit murder, also a Class AA felony, and conspiracy to commit burglary.
Former
U.S. Attorney Drew Wrigley declined to comment on the likelihood of the Gattuso case going federal. But he said he’s not surprised initial discussions have taken place.
Federal law has a murder-for-hire statute that makes it a crime to cross state lines with the intent to commit murder for money. The statute covers both the "hit man” and contractor, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Criminal Resource Manual.
The penalty for violating the law depends on the severity of the crime, with maximum penalties of a $250,000 fine, life imprisonment or death.
Wrigley said proof issues may make a case more or less complicated by taking it to federal court.
Besides statutes, Wrigley said other factors that may be considered include the amount of time, money, travel and personnel required, availability of the death penalty and the fact there’s no parole in the federal prison system.
Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater said he doesn’t plan to file charges against Kirkpatrick or Nakvinda.
Prater said conspiracy charges can be filed where the alleged conspiring took place or where the overt act that resulted from the conspiring happened, and prosecutors are taking the latter course of action.
Investigators said Kirkpatrick confessed to paying Nakvinda $3,000 to kill Gattuso because he didn’t approve of how Gattuso was raising his 3-year-old daughter, who is Kirkpatrick’s granddaughter. Gattuso was raising the girl alone after his wife died in March.
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