ND hearing set in slain dentist daughter custody

FARGO, N.D. (AP) — The brother of a slain Fargo dentist says an Oklahoma judge has given North Dakota jurisdiction in a custody battle over the dentist's daughter.

Roy Gattuso said a judge in Fargo may decide at a hearing Tuesday who gets custody of 3-year-old Kennedy Gattuso. She had been living with her father, Philip, who was killed Oct. 26 in his south Fargo condominium.

The child now is in the custody of her aunt, Regan Williams, in Jones, Okla., near Oklahoma City.

Williams' father, Gene Kirkpatrick, also of Jones, is charged with conspiracy to commit murder.

Prosecutors allege Kirkpatrick hired his handyman, Michael Nakvinda of Oklahoma City, to kill Gattuso because he did not like the way Gattuso was raising Kennedy after the death of the dentist's wife, Valerie, who was Kirkpatrick's daughter. She died in March after an extended illness.