HOUSTON – A former Missouri City police officer who has been behind bars for more than 25 years after orchestrating his wife’s death is set to be put to death on Tuesday.
Robert Alan Fratta, 65, is scheduled to be executed at 6 p.m. on January 10, 2023. He has remained in custody at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Correctional Institution in Huntsville since the date was set, according to his execution order.
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The murder-for-hire plot made national headlines, with unfolding details showing a couple in the middle of a bitter custody battle and divorce, and a mother’s untimely end that forever altered a family. Robert Fratta was accused of recruiting two men from his gym, Howard Guidry and Joseph Prystash, to take his wife’s life.
Farah Fratta was killed in her garage on Nov. 9, 1994, leaving behind three children. Robert was in church when she was found shot to death.
Fratta was first convicted of capital murder in 1996 and sentenced to death, but that conviction was later thrown out due to inadmissible evidence. Fratta stood trial again in 2009 and convicted a second time.
During trial, defense attorneys argued that Fratta suffered paranoid delusional thinking from a brain injury, also, from witnessing his father suffering a deadly heart attack during a hunting trip when Fratta was a teenager. They said Fratta was emotionally stunted, seeing himself as a victim and was fearful of losing custody of his children.
Prosecutors painted a different picture of Fratta, saying that he was a narcissist who manipulated those around him. They called him a mastermind with a long history of “psycho-social impairment” and a threat to the public.
Prosecutors said, after witnessing his own father die, he should have known the impact his wife’s death would have on their children.
Two of the couple’s children testified in court. Fratta’s adult daughter, who was 4 years old when her mother died, said she saw no remorse from her father when she visited him once in jail. She went on to say, because of him, she developed trust issues with men and relationships.
The victim’s father also spoke out about his former son-in-law.
“I didn’t want to say anything to him. He’s such a dog and a monster. I was wasting my time if I had said something to him,” Lex Baquer said outside the courtroom.
After the verdict, the judge made it clear that Fratta would not be able to make any profit from the case. Victim’s rights advocate Andy Kahan said that was the first time an order of that nature had been made in Texas.
“We’re seeing more and more high-profile defendants that are peddling their rights for books and movies,” Kahan said. “We wanted to make sure that that was in the judgment; that he cannot in any way profit from selling his rights.”
Prosecutors said they were worried Fratta would try to profit from the case because he took many notes throughout the trial. They said they also got information that he may have been trying to start a website.
Guidry and Prystash were also sentenced to death, but Fratta was first to receive an official execution date.
In an interview with KPRC 2 more than two decades ago, Farah’s parents spoke out about the length of time it takes for a convicted person to be put to death.
“I personally think that we are not executing these people fast enough,” her father said.
“I wish I could be the one to finish them off. That would give me satisfaction,” Farah’s mother said.