Robert Fratta's capital murder conviction overturned; to be retried

**Kalehue** · March 29th, 2009, 03:56 PM

Former police officer and disgusting excuse for a human being Robert Fratta was convicted of capital murder in the death of his wife, Farrah. The conviction was overturned and the decision was upheld by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. The triggerman in the case, Howard Guidry, was also given a new trial. He has been retried, reconvicted, and given the Death Penalty again. Fratta's new trial will begin tomorrow.

This was a very high-profile Houston murder case. He was an abusive husband and sexual pervert (paid prostitutes to defecate on him, etc.) -- very sick person. Farrah was divorcing him and seeking custody of their three children because of his increasingly bizarre sexual demands and abuse. He actually hired someone to rape and torture her in the hope that she would be intimidated into dropping the proceedings. When she was finally about to prevail in the case, she was shot to death in her driveway. Fratta took out nearly a quarter of a million dollars in life insurance on her in the days before she was killed.

God bless her family who is having to live through two murder trials -- for both Guidry and Fratta.

From the moment Farah Fratta fell mortally wounded to the driveway outside her Atascocita home, detectives had little doubt about the person most likely responsible for her death. Her estranged husband, Robert, all but arrived at the sheriff’s office for questioning with “prime suspect” stamped on his shirt.

He frequently had spoken to others about wanting his wife dead, police say. He behaved suspiciously on the night of her death — Nov. 9, 1994 — and in the days immediately after. He seemed so blase and uncooperative that detectives concluded he was behind her death long before they had enough evidence to prove it.

In time, that evidence arrived, mostly in the form of confessions from two supposed co-conspirators, Howard Guidry and Joseph Prystash, and a corroborating statement from Prystash’s girlfriend. To no one’s surprise, Fratta was convicted and sentenced to death, as were the two co-defendants.

But the case against him fell apart on appeal, and suddenly a slam-dunk conviction began to look like a challenge. On Monday, jury selection will begin in Fratta’s new trial. This time prosecutors will have to make do without the confessions or key portions of girlfriend Mary Gipp’s testimony.

Retrials seldom pan out much better for capital murder defendants than the first ones, but Fratta’s case could prove different. The judge who reversed his conviction, U.S. District Judge Melinda Harmon, was emphatic about the poor quality of the state’s case against him absent the confessions:

“The trial evidence showed Fratta to be egotistical, misogynistic and vile, with a callous desire to kill his wife,” Harmon wrote in her 2007 opinion. “The evidence strongly suggested that Fratta was somehow involved in his wife’s death ... Only the inadmissible statements by Guidry and Prystash and Ms. Gipp’s hearsay-laden testimony neatly tied that circumstantial evidence into a coherent prosecutorial theory of capital murder as alleged in the indictment.”

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with her, which means prosecutors this time around must produce more evidence if they want to get a conviction that will stand up on appeal. Or perhaps if they want a conviction at all.

“A reasonable jury could very well acquit Mr. Fratta of capital murder,” said James Rytting, who represented Fratta on appeal. “The state’s case is particularly weak when it comes to proving Mr. Fratta paid anybody to commit murder.”

Timeline in case:

Major events in the Fratta case

Nov. 9, 1994: Farah Fratta is found shot to death in her driveway in Atascocita. Her estranged husband, Robert, a public safety officer in Missouri City, is publicly named as a suspect shortly after the murder.

April 21, 1995: Robert Fratta is charged with capital murder. He is accused of hiring two men, Howard Guidry and Joseph Prystash.

April 17, 1996: A jury finds Fratta guilty of capital murder. He is sentenced to die.

July 10, 1996: Joseph Prystash is charged with hiring Howard Guidry to kill Farah, and with driving Guidry to the home.

March 26, 1997: Trigger-man Guidry is sentenced to death for shooting Farah.

Sept. 26, 2003: A federal court overturns the conviction of Guidry. An appeals court upholds the reversal in January 2005.

Feb. 22, 2007: Guidry is again convicted of killing Farah and sent back to death row.

Oct. 1, 2007: Robert Fratta’s conviction is overturned. A judge says the confessions of Guidry and Prystash should not have been allowed into evidence.

July 22, 2008: The 5th Circuit affirms the ruling, similarly assailing the evidence against Fratta.

Much more at the Houston Chronicle website: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6347860.html

Shorter article here w/video:
http://www.myfoxhouston.com/dpp/news..._Death_of_Wife

**Misskittychaos** · March 29th, 2009, 04:08 PM

Her poor family having to endure this twice.

**Wicked Doll** · March 29th, 2009, 04:44 PM

He should so fry. I feel very sorry for her family. I wonder how the children are taking all of this?

**Kalehue** · March 29th, 2009, 06:06 PM

[quote=Wicked Doll;190638]He should so fry. I feel very sorry for her family. I wonder how the children are taking all of this?quote]

Wicked Doll -- I'm all out of thanks, but thanks for posting the picture of the family. I was looking everywhere for a pic of Farrah.

Just so sickening that the family is having to go through this. I haven't seen anything about how they're handling this. I can only imagine how difficult it must be for them. Very disturbing that there seems to be concern about whether or not he'll be convicted this go-round.

From the Houston Chronicle article linked above:

The notion that Fratta could go free is troubling to many who are familiar with the circumstances of his wife’s death or the publicity surrounding it.

Testimony at his trial and in proceedings related to the divorce painted a sordid picture of sexual deviance, physical abuse and calculated murder. He had no qualms about expressing his desire to see her dead or reservations about showing a friend an account of her daily activities for use by a potential assassin. He calmly mentioned to another that there was no way he would let any other man “play with” the breast implants he had insisted she get as a condition of continued marriage.

I just pray they're able to get an appeal-proof conviction this time.

**Unamused Cat** · March 30th, 2009, 12:00 AM

Not again!

**Kalehue** · May 5th, 2009, 04:25 PM

Robert Fratta sitting in court during opening arguments

Prosecutors this morning told jurors they would hear testimony from at least four men that Robert Fratta tried to hire them to kill his wife, Farah, before ultimately agreeing to trade a Jeep to Joseph Prystash and pay more than $1,000 to Howard Guidry for shooting her in 1994.

“As he became angrier and more bitter, Bob Fratta actively began to seek out someone who would kill her,” prosecutor Denise Bradley said during opening arguments in the death penalty re-trial that packed state District Judge Belinda Hill’s courtroom.

Bradley said Fratta wanted to kill his wife because of a contentious divorce.

She said Fratta told a friend, “They may think I did it, but they’ll never be able to prove I did it.”

Fratta, a former Missouri City public safety officer, was sentenced to die in 1996, but an appeals court reversed the conviction because prosecutors used inadmissible confessions of Prystash and Guidry.

Fratta’s defense attorney Vivian King countered saying Fratta was amenable to the divorce and the custody arrangements of the three children and that an envelope with $1,050 found in Fratta’s car was for new carpet.

Farah Fratta was shot as she arrived home from getting her haircut on Nov. 9, 1994. She died in the driveway outside her Atascocita home.

Fratta, Prystash and Guidry were convicted and sentenced to death based on their admissions and the testimony of Prystash’s girlfriend, Mary Gipp. Guidry was retried and sent back to death row in 2007.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6408917.html

**Kalehue** · May 14th, 2009, 08:07 AM

Farah Fratta was killed in her garage on Nov. 9, 1994. Robert Fratta, 51, is accused of recruiting two men from his gym, Howard Guidry and Joseph Prystash, to kill his wife with the promise of a Jeep and $1,000. He has spent a dozen years on death row since being convicted in his first trial.

Harris County homicide investigator Sgt. Danny Billingsley testified on Wednesday about Mary Gipp's cell phone records. Gipp was Prystash's girlfriend.

Gipp said her cell phone was taken from her car on the day of the killing. Prosecutors implied that Prystash took it.

Billingsley said records showed that three calls were made from that cell phone to a grocery store pay phone within minutes of Farah Fratta's death. Prosecutors implied that someone was desperately trying to talk to someone at that pay phone.

The couple had three children. Bradley Baquer was 7 years old and in second grade when Farah Fratta was killed. Now 20, he has taken his mother's maiden name as his own. The Frattas were going through a divorce when Farah Fratta was shot to death.

Baquer testified Tuesday that the day of his mother's death, his father picked him up from school for his regular visitation every Wednesday. Then, Robert Fratta took his three children out to eat and to religion classes at a local church.

Baquer said that Robert Fratta repeatedly checked pages and continually made phone calls throughout the day and night. Prosecutors were implying that Robert Fratta was in constant contact with the men he hired to kill his wife.

Guidry confessed to his role and his confession was a key piece of evidence in Fratta's first trial, but that conviction was thrown out after an appeals court ruled last year that Guidry's claim should not have been admitted.

Defense attorneys said Fratta did not take any part in his wife's death. He is a former Missouri City police officer.

Guidry and Prystash are on death row. They have both refused to testify in Fratta's retrial.

http://www.click2houston.com/news/19450310/detail.html

**Unamused Cat** · May 15th, 2009, 03:45 PM

Guilty!

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?se...cal&id=6815132

**Kalehue** · May 15th, 2009, 04:33 PM

Originally Posted by Unamused Cat

Guilty!

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?se...cal&id=6815132

GREAT NEWS! I am so relieved. I clicked onto the link twice just to watch and rewatch his reaction during the verdict. Haha. One of his defense attorneys is Randy McDonald -- at the end of the table with him in the video at the link. He was Bart Whitaker's defense attorney. I wonder how that man sleeps at night after dealing with scum of the earth like Bart and Fratta.

BTW, what's with Fratta's stupid haircut?