Judge awards $9.6 million in wrongful death suit

A North Dakota judge has awarded $9.6 million to the family of a Fargo dentist who was killed in a murder-for-hire scheme orchestrated by the victim’s father-in-law in an attempt to gain custody of his granddaughter. Gene Kirkpatrick, of Jones, Okla., allegedly paid $3,000 for the hit on Philip Gattuso because he was unhappy with the way his son-in-law was raising his granddaughter, who was left orphaned by her father’s death. Valerie Gattuso, Philip’s wife and Kirkpatrick’s daughter, died in March 2009 after an extended illness.