Fargo murder trial testimony focuses on activity near slain dentist's home

FARGO

Law enforcement authorities and witnesses revealed further details this morning on the evidence that drew investigators to suspect Michael Nakvinda in the days following the murder of Fargo dentist Phillip Gattuso in late October 2009.

Nakvinda is standing trial in Cass County District Court for murder, robbery, burglary and theft. He's accused of killing Gattuso at the request of Gattuso's father-in-law Gene Kirkpatrick for $3,000.

Nakvinda claims he's being set up by Kirkpatrick and has never even been to Fargo.

Testimony today focused on events that took place near Gattuso's home the morning of the murder and the trek Nakvinda is accused of making between Fargo and a South Dakota rest area off Interstate 29, en route to Nakvinda's home in Oklahoma City.

Fargo police Det. Paula Ternes said a Fargo police patrol car with an exterior camera captured images of an unidentifiable person walking toward Gattuso's residence, the morning he was bloodily beaten with a hammer.

The footage, taken as the car was in the drive-thru lane of the nearby A&W Restaurant, shows only a person's lower legs walking across the parking lot toward a hidden walkway that leads directly in front of Gattuso's former home.

Ternes acknowledged the quality and detail of the video were "quite poor," and the only identifiable aspect of the person was their white shoes.

However, she said police believe there is a "strong possibility" that the individual is tied to the case.

Nakvinda's attorney, Steve Mottinger, pointed out several times the white color of that person's shoes - compared to other surveillance video that morning showing Nakvinda wearing dark shoes.

Surveillance cameras at a South Dakota rest area off I-29 captured a man with a black pick-up truck towing a flat-bed storage trailer carrying a car tightly covered by a tarp. Police say the man was Nakvinda.

Two Detroit Lakes, Minn., residents testified they stopped at the rest area at the same time Nakvinda had been there.

Darwin Lusty and Ray Griffith were traveling to Nebraska when they passed Nakvinda on the interstate and later saw him at the rest area.

Both later identified Nakvinda out of a photo line-up from Fargo police.

Griffith said he chatted with Nakvinda at the rest area, and Nakvinda told him he was towing a 1999 Porsche Boxster - the same type of vehicle reported stolen from Gattuso's home after the murder.

Griffith testified Nakvinda told him he'd purchased the car off the Internet and was taking it back to Oklahoma.

Testimony will continue this afternoon with the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigations agents describing their role in assisting with arrests and searches conducted in Oklahoma City.

The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead and the Herald are Forum Communications Co. newspapers.