Robert Fratta was sentenced to death for hiring two men to kill his wife over his anger with their lengthy divorce and custody battle over their three children.
A former Texas police officer was executed for his role in the 1994 murder of his estranged wife during a divorce and custody battle.
Robert “Bob” Fratta, 65, was executed on Jan. 10 after being on death row since his 2009 conviction for hiring two men to murder his estranged wife, Farah Fratta, according to court documents.
Fratta was first convicted in 1997 of hiring someone to murder his wife but the conviction was vacated. He was re-convicted and sentenced to death in 2009, stated the documents.
Fratta was sentenced to death for hiring two men, Joseph Prystash and Howard Guidry, both also on death row for the murder, to kill his wife over his anger with their lengthy divorce and custody battle over their three children, according to the documents.
Witnessing the lethal injection was Fratta’s oldest son, Farah’s brother, and Andy Kahan, the director of victim services and advocacy for Crime Stoppers of Houston, NBC DFW reported. Despite knowing his son was present, Fratta didn’t look at or acknowledge him, said the news site.
“Bob was a coward in 1994, when he arranged the murder for hire of his estranged wife,” Kahan said, reported NBC DFW. “And 28-plus years later, he still was a coward tonight. When he was offered an opportunity to at least extend an olive branch to his son that he knew was watching this.”
Fratta gave no final statement, according to jail records.
Prior to his execution, Fratta attempted to get the Supreme Court to approve a stay of execution, which was denied. The closet Fratta got to a stay was a Travis County judge stalling the execution for an hour due to claims that the drugs for the injection were expired, KHOU reported.
The execution continued after the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals vacated the injunction, according to KHOU.
Fratta died on Jan. 10 at 7:49 p.m., reported KHOU.
