FARGO - The aunt of the 3-year-old girl orphaned last month when her father was beaten to death in an alleged murder-for-hire said the girl's mother wanted her to raise the girl.
Regan Williams, sister of Valerie Gattuso, said that Valerie before her death in March wrote a letter to her husband, slain Fargo dentist Philip Gattuso, telling him that she wanted Williams and her husband to have custody of the 3-year-old, Kennedy Gattuso.
Since shortly after Philip Gattuso was killed Oct. 26 until a court hearing Tuesday, Williams had custody of Kennedy under an order from an Oklahoma court.
Courts in North Dakota instead gave temporary custody to Philip's brother Roy Gattuso, an arrangement valid for 180 days.
In an interview today, Williams said she plans to fight to be the permanent guardian of Kennedy. Courts have not yet ruled on the girl's permanent guardian.
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Williams said she's cared for Kennedy for 20 of the last 26 months as Valerie struggled to overcome the eventually fatal complications of a heart surgery and that the girl is as close as can be to her family.
"She calls me 'mommy,'" she said. "I'm her aunt, but I feel like I'm her mother."
Roy Gattuso was worried when Williams had Kennedy because police believe that Williams' father, Gene Kirkpatrick, paid a former handyman $3,000 to kill Philip Gattuso in order to obtain custody of the girl.
Kirkpatrick is charged in Cass County District Court with conspiring to murder Gattuso, and the handyman, Michael Nakvinda, is charged with murder.
Williams said she hasn't had any contact with her parents since Kirkpatrick was charged and that she volunteered to take a lie detector test - which she passed - showing she had no knowledge of the alleged plot to hire a hitman.
Cutting off ties with her parents, who live less than a mile from her in Jones, Okla., near Oklahoma City, was difficult, but it was needed to bolster her case for keeping Kennedy, Williams said.
"They're grown people; I'm a grown person and Kennedy's an innocent little child," she said. "As adults, our feelings are not the ones that are important. It's just protecting the innocent little child that's important."
Dave Roepke is a reporter at The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead, which is owned by Forum Communications Co.
