Execution Of Robert Fratta Who Hired Hitmen To Kill His Wife

A former suburban Houston police officer who hired two people to murder his estranged wife over 30 years ago is scheduled to be executed today, January 10, 2023.

In the midst of a bitter divorce and custody battle over their three children, Robert Fratta, 65, is set to be executed by lethal injection for orchestrating the murder of his wife Farah in November 1994.

According to the prosecution, Fratta planned the murder-for-hire scheme in which Howard Guidry, the gunman, was hired through an intermediary named Joseph Prystash. In the garage of her home in the Houston neighborhood of Atascocita, Farah Fratta, 33, was shot twice in the head by Guidry. The former Missouri City public safety officer Robert Fratta has always maintained his innocence claiming he was in church when the crime was committed.

According to court documents, the prosecution claimed that Fratta had repeatedly expressed his desire to see his wife dead and inquired of friends and acquaintances as to whether they knew anyone who could execute her. He allegedly told one friend, "I'll just kill her, and I'll do my time, and when I get out, I'll have my kids." For the murder, Prystash and Guidry were also placed on death row.

Attorneys for Fratta have petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to postpone the execution that is set to take place at the state prison in Huntsville this night, January 10. They claim that the prosecution withheld evidence that one eyewitness to the trial had been hypnotized by detectives. They claim it caused her to change her original account.

The prosecution claims that the hypnosis did not result in any new knowledge or identification.

The Supreme Court and lower courts have previously dismissed appeals from Fratta's attorneys, who attempted to have accusations that the jury verdict was based on flawed court proceedings and inadequate evidence reviewed.

Additionally, his defenders attempted to refute a firearms evidence by claiming that it did not link him to the murder weapon and that one of the jurors in his case was not impartial.

Last Thursday, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles overwhelmingly rejected Fratta's request to have his death sentence reduced or to offer him a 60-day reprieve.

Fratta is one of three death row convicts in Texas who have filed a lawsuit to prevent the use of allegedly hazardous and outdated execution medications by the state's prison system. The top criminal appeals court in Texas last week prohibited the judge in the civil court from making any decisions regarding the lawsuit.

Fratta was first given a death sentence in 1996, but a federal judge reversed that decision after concluding that his co-conspirators' confessions should not have been allowed to be used as evidence. The trial evidence revealed Fratta to be egocentric, sexist, and cruel, with a callous wish to kill his wife, the judge stated in the same sentence.

In 2009, he was tried again and given a new death sentence.

Andy Kahan, director of victim services and advocacy for Crime Stoppers of Houston, who has assisted Farah Fratta's family throughout the investigation, said he intends to attend the execution in order to fulfill a promise he made to Farah Fratta's father, Lex Baquer, who died in 2018. Robert and Farah Fratta's three children were raised by Baquer and his wife.

“I don’t expect anything to come out of Bob that would show any type of admission or any type of remorse because everything has always revolved around him,” Kahan stated.

The execution will let the children "go on with their lives" and, at the very least, stop thinking about him. "I believe that will play a significant role in their recuperation," he stated.