A coffee CEO coldly asked police ‘What’s the benefits?’ when discussing whether to tell the truth about the murder of his nine-year-old child, a court heard.

Luciano Frattolin, 45, is said to have made the comment shortly after he allegedly killed his daughter Melina during a vacation to New York State last year. He denies a charge of murder and concealment of a corpse.

In footage played at Frattolin’s trial in Elizabethtown, New York, on Wednesday, Frattolin was apparently seen weighing up whether to tell what had really happened to Melina. 

She was drowned in a marsh while she and her Ethiopian-born father were traveling home to Ottawa, Canada, with Frattolin claiming his daughter had been abducted when they pulled over by the side of the road to use the bathroom. 

Frattolin, the CEO of coffee company Gambella, was seen being questioned in July last year by New York State Police (NYSP), where an investigator told him she did not believe the kidnapping story.

‘You’re not telling us the truth. I can see it in your face. I can see it in your body language,’ Ashlee Marks said. 

That was when Frattolin responded with ‘What are the benefits?’ which prosecutors have suggested was him weighing up whether to confess to his alleged crime. 

Luciano Frattolin, 45, a coffee CEO accused of murdering his nine-year-old daughter, told cops he didn’t see the ‘benefit’ of telling them the truth when he was interrogated over her death, prosecutors say. Above, entering court last Friday

Melina Frattolin, nine, was found with her lungs, airway and stomach filled with mud, debris and plants after her father allegedly drowned her, experts testified this week

As prosecutors showed the footage, he stared blankly and showed no emotion, court reporters said. 

Jurors also looked at harrowing images of Melina’s body after it was dragged from the marsh, but Frattolin remained silent and stared at investigators as they prepared to testify.

Prosecutors told the court that they obtained cell phone data that showed Frattolin had been near the lake where his daughter’s body was discovered. 

Frattolin claimed that he and Melina went to the lake to try and swim earlier on July 19 last year, but insisted ‘we both came back to the car.’

Despite being told that his own cell phone data helped lead to his daughter’s body, Frattolin maintained his story. 

He told investigators that they eventually did not swim because around ‘100 homes’ lined the shoreline, however Marks told him she had visited the area earlier that day and said she saw no homes nearby. 

‘It’s changing, you’re adding information, you’re changing information,’ the investigator told him on July 20 last year.

Frattolin appeared to be caught in another lie during the interrogation, as he also initially claimed he had not changed his clothes. 

He later altered his story to say that he changed his shirt because he was ‘sweaty.’

Frattolin’s wet clothes were allegedly later found in a trash bag discarded along Interstate 87, the highway he had been driving on to take Melina back to her mother in Montreal.

When Melina was reported missing by her father last year, he claimed that she had been kidnapped by two men in a white van as they traveled back home to Canada from New York

Frattolin has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and concealment of a corpse 

Frattolin and his daughter had visited New York City in the days before her death, and he was due to bring her back to hand her back to her mother. 

Prosecutors allege he hatched the murder plan as part of a scheme to avoid paying child support. 

On Wednesday, prosecutors brought forward medical examiner Dr Michael Sikirica, who told jurors that the nine-year-old’s death was ‘definitely a drowning case.’ 

He gave gruesome details about how Melina’s lungs, airway and stomach were filled with mud, debris and plants from the marsh, and her remains were covered in a ‘large amount of mud’ to conceal her. 

‘The lungs were just full of black material, basically mud and plant debris,’ Sikirica said. ‘It was obvious quickly that her lungs were hyper-expanded,’ Sikirica testified, adding that her remains appeared to be weighted down by a stone in the water. 

The testimony came days after it emerged that Melina had begged her mother not to send her on a previously planned trip with her father to his homeland.  

Earlier on Tuesday, Melina’s mother, Kali Galanis, took the stand and told jurors that Frattolin’s trip to New York with their daughter came after he unsuccessfully tried to take her to his native Ethiopia.

The vacation to Africa had been planned for January last year, but Galanis did not allow her daughter to go after Melina told her she did not want to.

Melina’s mother said her daughter sent her a picture hours before she was allegedly murdered 

Galanis and Frattolin were separated, and she said she had become concerned about Frattolin’s plans to travel overseas with their daughter. Her lawyer mentioned cases in which estranged spouses take their children to other countries and refuse to return with them.

Galanis also noted there were other ‘troubling and alarming things’ that Melina recounted her father saying about her unwillingness to travel to the East African nation, which led to her ultimately deciding not to allow her daughter to go.

‘I became uncomfortable,’ she explained at the trial. ‘I was not OK with that anymore.’ 

Frattolin compromised and took Melina to New York instead, where he allegedly drowned her as they drove back to Canada.

Prosecutors argue that the trip was just a ploy to kill Melina so that he would no longer have to pay child support.

Frattolin also allegedly believed that both Galanis and Melina suffered from mental illness and had been planning to end her suffering since early last year, CBS6 Albany reports.

The trial continues on Thursday.