GUILTY TX Farah Fratta-34 fatally shot 11-9-94. Policeman husband & two accomplices convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death. (Re-trials/guilty).

[Seattle1]

Texas executes former Missouri City public safety officer for 1994 murder of estranged wife

Robert “Bob” Fratta was executed in Huntsville Tuesday for the 1994 murder of his estranged wife, Farah Fratta. He gave no final statement and never acknowledged his oldest son, Bradley Baquer, or Farah Fratta’s brother, Zain Baquer, who witnessed the execution.

www.click2houston.com

Jan 10, 2023

Two juries, one in 1996 and another in a re-trial in 2009, found Robert Fratta guilty of hiring two men to kill his wife, and both juries sentenced him to death,” Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said. “Robert Fratta showed that he was the worst of the worst through the cowardly act of hiring others to do his dirty work and then hiding behind his position of authority as a law-enforcement officer to try to escape responsibility.

Fratta, a public safety officer in Missouri City, masterminded the plot to kill his wife because the two were divorcing and were going through a bitter custody battle over their three children. Fratta hired an acquaintance, Joseph Prystash, to coordinate the murder.

Joseph Prystash then hired his neighbor, Howard Guidry, who fatally shot 34-year-old Farah Fratta in her garage as she arrived home on Nov. 9, 1994. The couple's children were 3, 6 and 8 when their mother was killed. Robert Fratta was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death in 1996. After a successful appeal, he received a re-trial and was again sentenced to death in 2009.”

Robert Fratta was executed by lethal injection on Jan 9, 2023

Prystash and Guidry are on death row but do not have execution dates with appeals pending.

 

[Seattle1]

Attorneys attack former prosecutor in another high-profile murder trial

Twice he was convicted and sent to death row, and both times the prosecutor who sent him...

www.houstonchronicle.com

7/19/2015

Howard Guidry was 18 years old when he was charged with being the triggerman in a 1994 murder-for-hire case that involved a Missouri City police officer and his estranged wife. Twice he was convicted and sent to death row, and both times the prosecutor who sent him there was Kelly Siegler, the legendary Houston attorney who has been accused of withholding evidence in another high-profile murder case.

Now Guidry's attorneys are saying she used the same tactics when she prosecuted their client, both in the original trial, which was overturned on appeal, and again when he was retried.

"Here it is - the same patterns and practices," said Gwendolyn Payton, a lawyer at Lane Powell PC, a Seattle law firm that took on Guidry's case pro bono. "And how many more are out there? It's just really troubling."

[..]

There are several striking resemblances between the Brady material that was not released in Temple's 2007 trial and Guidry's two death penalty trials, including evidence of other suspects and exculpatory evidence about the murder weapon.

In what may be the most damning example, Guidry's lawyers were never told that crime scene investigators found fingerprints that were not Guidry's on Farah Fratta's car door and front fender where the shooter would have stood. The fingerprints were from another man who resembled Guidry and was friends with one of the suspects in the case.

[..]

In an appeal with hundreds of pages of arguments and sworn affidavits, Guidry's lawyers allege numerous instances of misconduct. They contend Siegler hid the identity of the suspect resembling Guidry, his fingerprints and the fact that there was blood on the seat of his car.

[..]

Pystash's girlfriend, Mary Gipp, is the cornerstone of the allegations against Guidry, including repeatedly testifying against him.

"Gipp was happy to point the finger at her 18-year-old neighbor, Mr. Guidry, instead of her boyfriend Prystash," according to the appeal.

[..]

Guidry and Fratta saw their convictions reversed for conduct by Siegler. She admitted unlawful confessions into evidence and used hearsay evidence.

In Guidry's case, a federal appeals court ruled that his statement to police was illegally coerced. The statements he made were repeated to a psychologist hired by the defense who later testified against Guidry. Also, hearsay evidence from Gipp, the middleman's girlfriend, was part of the reason the case was tossed out the first time.

[..]

Procedurally, it is hard to know what may happen next in Guidry's case. He does not have an execution date, which means his case remains on a federal court docket. The appeal was filed more than two years ago and the Texas Attorney's General's Office has not filed an answer to any of the allegations. The office has not responded to requests for comment on Guidry's case.

 

[Seattle1]

Case 4:05-cv-03392 Document 24 Filed in TXSD on 09/28/07 Page 1 of 49

Robert Fratta's federal petition for a writ of habeas corpus.
This federal habeas corpus proceeding concerns Fratta’s challenge to his state court conviction for orchestrating the murder-for-hire of his wife, Farah Fratta.

https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-txsd-4_05-cv-03392/pdf/USCOURTS-txsd-4_05-cv-03392-0.pdf

 

[Seattle1]

Fratta v. State (Original)​

Defendant was convicted of capital murder for hiring a third party to kill his estranged wife. On direct appeal, the court reviewed defendant's thirty-two points of error and concluded that they were without merit. Consequently, the court affirmed the trial court's judgment and sentence.

Fratta v. State (Original)

Defendant was convicted of capital murder for hiring a third party to kill his estranged wife. On direct appeal, the court reviewed defendant's thirty-two points of error and concluded that they were without merit. Consequently, the court affirmed the trial court's judgment and sentence.

law.justia.com

 

[Seattle1]

Guidry v. Lumpkin​

Opinion​

No. 20-70005

04-21-2021

HOWARD PAUL GUIDRY, Petitioner—Appellant, v. BOBBY LUMPKIN, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions Division, Respondent—Appellee.

Howard Paul Guidry was convicted of capital murder in Texas and sentenced to death. On federal habeas corpus review, the district court granted Guidry relief, and this court affirmed the grant of relief. Guidry was retried and resentenced to death. After pursuing direct review and habeas relief in state court, Guidry again sought federal habeas corpus relief under 28 U.S.C. § 2254. The district court denied relief on all claims. Guidry now seeks a certificate of appealability ("COA") from this court. We deny him a COA.

Guidry v. Lumpkin, No. 20-70005 | Casetext Search + Citator

Read Guidry v. Lumpkin, No. 20-70005, see flags on bad law, and search Casetext’s comprehensive legal database

casetext.com

 

[Seattle1]

Case: 20-70005 Document: 00515911045 Page: 1/26 Date Filed: 06/23/2021

Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Southern District of Texas
USDC No. 4:13-CV-1885

Howard Paul Guidry v Bobby Lumpkin, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions Division

https://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/20/20-70005-CV0.pdf

 

[Seattle1]

Supreme Court of the US
Robert Alan Fratta v State of Texas

On Petition for a Writ of Certiorari to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals

https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/22/22A486/249203/20221206143336439_Fratta.sh.bio%2006%20writ%20pro%20se%20FINAL-signed.pdf

 

[Seattle1]

Texas executes former officer who hired hitmen to kill his wife

Robert Fratta was in the middle of a contentious divorce and custody fight when he hired two people to kill his estranged wife in 1994.

www.nbcnews.com

 

[Seattle1]

48 Hours Mystery: Thou Shalt Not Kill

When a Mother is Murdered, a Mysterious Woman Holds All the Answers

www.cbsnews.com

 

[Seattle1]

Robert Fratta's accomplices remain on death row after his execution

There were two other men convicted in the 1994 murder of Farah Fratta. Howard Guidry and Joseph Prystash both remain on death row.

www.khou.com

 

[imstilla.grandma]

In Season 2, Episode 3 of Prosecuting Evil with Kelly Siegler, the prosecutor and investigators from the Harris County Sheriff’s Office in Texas recalled the 1994 homicide of Farah Fratta, a “vivacious” mother of three gunned down in the garage of her Humble-area home.

Less than an hour after the shooting, before Farah Fratta passed in the night, her husband, Robert “Bob” Fratta, showed up with the couple’s three children.

“At the crime scene, while I’m talking to Robert, he was not asking questions that you would think someone would be asking when they find out that his wife and [the] mother of his children have just been shot,” said Fikaris. “He’s focusing on telling the story about his alibi.”

Texas Cop Hires 2 Men to Kill Estranged Wife “Disgusted” by His Sexual Desires | Oxygen

Find out more about the events leading up to the shooting death of Texas mother Farah Fratta, according to Oxygen's Prosecuting Evil with Kelly Siegler.

www.oxygen.com