Oklahoma City man admits plot to kill N.D. dentist, police say

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An Oklahoma City man confessed to hiring a handyman to kill his son-in-law in North Dakota, police reported Tuesday. He also admitted videotaping the son-in-law’s condominium as part of the plan.

Gene Kirkpatrick said he told the handyman he wanted his son-in-law "gone or dead and had felt this way for quite a while,” police reported.

Kirkpatrick, 63, was charged Tuesday in Cass County, N.D., with conspiracy to commit murder and conspiracy to commit burglary. He was arrested Monday at his home. He told an Oklahoma County judge Tuesday he wanted to stay in Oklahoma and fight extradition. He is in the Oklahoma County jail.

The handyman, Michael Allen Nakvinda, 41, of Oklahoma City, is charged in North Dakota with murder, robbery, burglary and theft. He is in the Oklahoma County jail awaiting transfer to North Dakota.

Police said Nakvinda became a suspect because he was suspected of stealing the victim’s distinctive 1999 Porsche. Police used surveillance camera recordings to identify him. The Porsche was found Monday morning in a storage shed in Oklahoma City.

The victim, Philip Gattuso, 49, was a dentist in Fargo. He died from multiple blows to the head with a hammer. His body was found Oct. 26 at his condominium.

Kirkpatrick confessed Saturday night during an interview with a Fargo police detective and an Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation agent, a Fargo police lieutenant reported in a court affidavit. Police did not explain why he was not arrested immediately.

Police reported Kirkpatrick "expressed concern over the way” Gattuso was raising his daughter since the death of her mother, Valerie, in March. The two married in 2001. Their daughter is 3 years old. A brother of the victim told the Fargo newspaper that Kirkpatrick had made baseless child abuse allegations.