HARRIS COUNTY, Texas — On January 10, the State of Texas executed Robert Fratta for the 1994 murder of his wife Farah, but his two accomplices remain on death row. Neither Howard Guidry or Joseph Prystash has an execution date set.
“I saw the pain on this family’s face, like I do on every family, and we will see justice is done in all the cases," Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said after Robert Fratta's execution.
Ogg vowed the other cases would not be forgotten.
The first clue others were involved in Farah's murder came from the 911 tapes.
911 Caller: “There’s a car that just pulled up, the suspect is behind the tree. He can’t see me, I have my lights off but there’s a car that just pulled up..."
Howard Guidry, who was 18 at the time, was the first to be arrested after an unrelated bank robbery. Inside his car, investigators found the gun they believed was used to kill Farah.
Guidry, they said, was the trigger man. But the plot didn’t stop there. It was actually one of Robert Fratta’s workout buddies, Prystash, that was also arrested. Investigators said he was driving the getaway car and was the one who got Guidry to carry out the hit for $1,000 cash, which was later found in Robert Fratta’s car.
“It’s incredibly rare for an accomplice in a solicitation of a capital murder case to be sentenced to death," KHOU 11 legal expert Carmen Roe said. “The 90s was a completely different time period and at that time Harris County was executing more inmates than any state across the country, except for perhaps two."
The options jurors had were not the same as today. Life without parole was not an option.
“There wasn’t a lot of knowledge, you couldn’t tour the death chamber for example," Roe said. "All of that’s been opened up to the public and to the media for transparency purposes.”
While the Fratta case is unusual, Roe also notes it was also incredibly heinous.
“I think a lot of people in the community think the death penalty was warranted, not just for Robert Fratta, but also his accomplices," Roe said.
Both Guidry and Prystash have appealed their convictions, but remain on death row waiting on execution dates.