Last Interview With a Killer Before Execution

She didn't meet the physical attributes of what I was looking for in a wife, but I felt like, hey, this must be the woman that God wanted me to marry. Jesus's voice talking to me about contacting the Mormon church, and he gave me information about them. I followed the instructions of the dream. I contacted the Mormon church. They sent me their Book of Mormon, and everything that I read matched the information that was given to me in the dream. Having been in the emergency field, firefighting and police, you learn to control your emotions and not let emergency situations get you startled. So yeah, I learned that. But as far as not being afraid to die, I think that's more of my relationship with God. I'm ready. Yeah, I don't mind dying at all. This is Robert Frotta. He has been sentenced to death for a horrific crime. But to understand his crimes, we have to go back to November 9th, 1991. Now in County, what is your emergency? Yes, I just saw a shooting, please. Okay, do you know if anybody's been shot? Yes, I see the way that I see in her garage right now. Has somebody shot? Yes. Stay on the line. Let me connect you to the ambulance service. Hold on. Now in County, go ahead. Yes, I just saw a shooting. You just saw a shooting? Yes. And what is your location? I'm at Timbers Trail in Atascosita. Timbers Trail? Yes. In Atascosita. You need to send an ambulance. She's down. All right. I just need to find out where, where we're going now. There's a black man. Is he black? I don't want to say he's black. He's just in black. There's a man at her house. And my lights are on. And I know. Okay. Have you called the sheriff's department? No, no. I just saw him. No, no. This is not a run-up. I'm waiting to transfer. If you're done with her, because we need to get out there. Very good. Then call back out there. Dispatch out of it. Okay. There's someone over there. Laura, stay on the line. I'm going to get the sheriff's department. Hold on. I'm still here. I'm still here. I'm going to have a shooting. Atascosita, MS en route. Go ahead, ma'am. Suspect's still there. Oh, yes. There's still a person out there. There's a black gentleman. He's dressed in a black shirt and a black pants. The lady is down in her garage. She's been shot two times or two shots. Oh, dear. Okay. All right. And what, MS is en route to Atascosita? Yes. Oh, my God. Okay. And the suspect is still there. Where is Skye? She is in her garage. The suspect? No. The suspect is -- there's a car that just pulled up. The suspect is behind the tree, and he can't see me. I have my lights out, but there's a car that just pulled up, and I can't tell what color he is. Okay, ma'am. Oh, God. My head's in so much pain. Get in here. I think Darren went to see the license plate, but he can't get the license plate to the car. Okay. All right. So, if you can, will you call us back, okay? Okay. Did the guy get to the car with the -- Did you see me answer the license plate, ma'am? Did I get back in the house? Shut the door, please. Did the man get in the car? Ma'am? This is the house, right? Yes. The black man just got in the car, though, but it was a silver car, I believe. Uh-huh. Darren, did you know what kind of car it is? Ma'am, did you say this is Timber Trail Drive? Timbers Trail Drive, yes. It has an "S" on it? Let me tell you something about the car real quick. It's a silver car with one burnt-out headlight. Hatchback. Hatchback. Real small. Real small Toyota. About six years old. About six years old. It could be a Honda. It could be a Honda. The lady is still in her garage. The light's out in six. And they turned the lights out in the garage. Does the car look like it's waiting for a suspect? Yes, and it already drove off. With them in there? Yes. The suspect just took off. Did you get this? Okay. No, I just went out to look, but then he -- I just gave you the description of it. Okay, well, Timbers -- does Timbers have an "S" on it? Timbers, yes, it does. Okay, that's why it's not coming up in the computer. Okay, let me try this. I'm just very scared, because I know these people just run lights around. Do you think they saw my house? Okay. Hold on just a moment. Oh, God. Should we go over there and see her? Darren, Darren, please don't go over there. Okay. Okay, ma'am. Yes? I'm going to transfer you to Constable Precinct 4 so they can talk to you, okay? Okay. Since this isn't in progress, you might have some information that they need. Darren, you should think -- don't go over there, sweetie. Hold on, ma'am. Okay. God. Darren, my roommates are going to go over there to see her. Okay. Okay. Ma'am, I have Precinct 4 on the line. Okay. Constable Precinct 4. Go ahead, sir. Okay. Can you tell me what's going on? Yeah, I just saw a shooting. I was in my living room nursing my baby, and I looked out my window, and our neighbor was outside her garage, and she was shot two times. By a passing motorist? No. It looked like he was either in her garage waiting for her, or I just saw his pants, and then I saw a black man, and he was dressed in black, and he was waiting, and he jumped into a car. What kind of a car? It was a silver car. My husband gave the 911 a description, but my husband just pulled up into her driveway. He can see her, and she's down. My husband's going right down to see if he can help her. Okay. Your husband is not armed or anything? No. No. The only thing he has is me. Okay. Did y'all see who did it? No. All I saw was the pants, and then I saw the gentleman, but I can't give a description of the guy. Okay. But he was in a silver Toyota? Yes, and it hatched back there. It had one headlight out or one something out. My husband knows. He's over there with her right now. Okay. And he shot her twice? Yes. I heard two shots. okay and he shot her twice yes i heard two shots i heard a scream and i looked out my window and my life are all over these people fell inside my house my husband's running all right he shot in the head my husband said she shot in her head yeah that woman that's been shot in the head and she's still alive and she does have three children i do not know if the children are home okay there's a police officer coming i see someone coming oh dear jesus help this woman okay we uh got got a unit over there okay okay you okay thank you and you need to advise them what y'all did see okay okay all right thank you bye-bye before we begin we would like to send our sincere condolences to the loved ones of farah frotta who fell victim to the abominable acts described in this case it was a quiet wednesday evening in a suburban area of humble texas on november 9th 1994 33 year old farah frotta had just returned home from visiting the hair salon an errand she scheduled while her three children were at their usual work wednesday evening with their father robert frotta after opening the garage door farah was taken by surprise when a man walked through the door and shot her in the head she screamed and fell to the cement floor before leaving the intruder shot her in the head one more time and then stood behind a tree in the yard to wait for his ride who appeared less than a minute later farah was left lying in a pool of blood what the intruder didn't realize was that the intruder had been shot in the head by a man who had been shot in the head by a man who had been shot by a man who had been shot by a man who neighbors from across the street laura and darren holscher who saw the whole thing and called 9-1-1 by the time police and paramedics arrived at the scene farah had already lost a significant amount of blood police spoke with the holschers who provided them with a description of the shooter and the getaway car not long after police and paramedics arrived at the scene robert came driving up with the children detectives at the scene asked robert to come to the police station to make a statement which he agreed and was interviewed by police that same night while the police investigated the scene and interviewed the witnesses paramedics focused on getting farah into a chopper to get her to the hospital quickly but it was too late she died before she even reached the hospital farah had been living alone with her three children after she had filed for divorce from robert in march of 1992 something robert was not happy about the divorce turned ugly very fast because fara exposed robert's sexual fetishes and was fighting for custody of their children robert was also fighting for custody fara's murder occurred three weeks before the divorce trial at the police station detective larry davis conducted the interrogation with robert davis davis asked robert where he had been during the time of fara's murder robert said that he took the children to church that evening but police say frata didn't seem surprised his demeanor was not what you would expect from the uh husband of deceased although they were going through a very bitter divorce during the interrogation davis noticed that robert appeared smug and showed signs of deception throughout the whole process his demeanor was such in that he was not what we'd call freely forthcoming with all his information what robert never showed was emotion toward his wife's tragic death he showed no remorse he showed only the fact that he was full of himself that he was cocky that he could beat this that's the impression you got of bob frada that day the prosecutors won the last thing the jury to see was bob frada winking at the camera the jury was not surprised that robert davis showed no remorse he showed only the fact that he was full of himself that he was cocky that he could beat this that's the impression you got of bob frada that day the prosecutors won the last thing the jury to see was bob frada winking at the camera how did you find your wife i didn't that's where all the uh everything's roped off when you're taped off and when i walked over like i said my initial reaction when i could nobody really look frantic or anything like that i mean i guess it all had already occurred and life had already taken off whatever and i honestly thought there was a drug rate or something so that's why I walked over and didn't think too much of it and one of the constables told me. Do you still have feelings for her? It's starting to hit me now I mean I loved her I mean I want to spend the rest of my life with her I never wanted the divorce I didn't do anything to warrant a divorce yeah I mean I still care about her I mean you know. Have you ever hit your wife? I'm sorry? I've never hit her. I've never even raised my voice to her. I can pretty much say I never did raise my voice to her. Why does she want a divorce? I guess to sum it up basically there was no romance and affection in our marriage it was more like I mean I loved her I provided for her you know I just wanted to spend the rest of my life with her. I mean I loved her. I provided for her. I just wanted to spend the rest of my life with her. you know, took care of her and everything, but we, I guess we just weren't in love with each other, you know. Davis then asked what should happen to someone that had their wife killed. Robert said it depended on the circumstances. At that moment, Davis believed without a doubt that Robert was involved in Farrah's murder. However, without solid evidence to convict him, they had to let Robert go. After detectives received Robert's permission to search his vehicle, they found an address book and an envelope containing $1,000. Robert explained that the money was to pay for new carpeting. Detectives believed that the money in Robert's car was a clue and considered the idea that Robert may have paid someone to kill his wife. The money was an important issue with us and where you'd think, well, who's going to do this for a thousand? But at the same time, it could easily be upfront money to do something with the payment coming later. It could be money left over from a payment. The detectives contacted multiple people they found in Robert's address book. Most were friends. All of these men told investigators that Robert was going around asking if there was anyone willing to kill his wife. Robert's church alibi was also investigated. Detectives found out that Robert spent the majority of his time with his wife on the phone the night before the incident. "Frada had his children with him, so he would have an alibi. And while he was out with his children, he knew that this was occurring. He was at church. He was visible. One thing he didn't count on, though, is that there were phone records that showed that there were phone calls made all night long between his pager, between a pager that was leased by Prystash's girlfriend at the church. And so they were communicating with each other all night while this offense was occurring." After obtaining phone records from the church, detectives discovered that he made multiple calls to a phone and a pager owned by Mary Gipp, one call to Fara's house, and multiple calls to a payphone outside of a grocery store located close to Fara's home. Detectives spoke to Gipp, who said that she was at home with her boyfriend, Joseph Prystash, the night that Fara was murdered. Robert said that she didn't recall using either her phone or her pager that night. On March 1, 1995, Gipp was subpoenaed to testify in front of a grand jury. It was at this point that she agreed to "tell all" as long as she was provided immunity from prosecution. Gipp explained that her boyfriend, Prystash, knew Robert from the gym. She said Robert first hired Prystash six months before Fara's death to break into her home and attack her, which he did using a taser gun, an incident that Fara reported to police and suspected that Robert was behind. However, at that time, there was no evidence to prove who had done it or why, so the police could do nothing. Later, Prystash found someone willing to kill Fara for money, Gipp's 18-year-old neighbor, Howard Guidry. Gipp also supplied detectives with the serial number of the gun that was used to kill Fara, and it matched a gun found on Guidry when he was arrested for bank robbery on March 1, 1995. It also matched the bullets found at the shooting. Detectives discovered that Robert had purchased the gun. Guidry not only admitted to police that Prystash hired him to kill Robert's wife for $1,000, he also gave a full demonstration of the event. "Whenever I killed a girl, I was at church. I was at church. I was at church. I was at that church with his children. Where'd you get the pistol from? I got the pistol from Joe maybe 30 minutes before we got here back at the apartments. Joe gave me the gun. Why don't you in your own words Howard why don't you tell tell us what happened here. I'll stop here from here I'm gonna cross. Sure let's walk. We're entering the rear yard of the Prada residence. So I ran into the house and I sat down for approximately uh maybe 20 minutes and I gave him a call from the sale of fun to the pay phone and uh I told him that uh she hadn't made it back yet. He told him just to wait it out and I had fun with it and maybe 10 minutes after that a car pulled in to the garage so when the car pulled in I came out of the little house and I walked up to right here and I stood right here 38 in my hand and I waited for somebody to come to the door but nobody came but I heard noises so I creeped around like this and I checked the door but it was locked from the outside so I just waited and then when the door finally opened I walked in and when I when I walked in I faced I faced the woman we was face to face and I turned to the side like this and we was facing face to face like this and I had the gun in my hand I pulled the gun up and I shot him once in the head and she like fell to the side or slumped to the side and I started to run out and as I started to run out she wasn't really dead so I turned around I closed my eyes and I shot her one more time in the head and I exited I exited this door right here and I I turned and looked once to see if anybody was looking and nobody was looking so I I came and I ran all right if you would turn and look face at him I made the phone call to joe to let him know that I was ready to go and it was over and uh he came within 30 seconds to maybe 30 seconds 45 seconds at the most after talking to gendry detectives picked up price stash who said he knew nothing but when lieutenant billingsley drove price dash back to the parking lot where they had picked him up billingsley said price stash told him everything including how robert promised to give him a jeep in exchange for his services police arrested price stash on march 13 1995 for his involvement in farah's murder after gathering all the evidence against him police were finally able to arrest robert on charges of solicitation of murder on april 21 1995. robert's first trial was held in april of 1996 and a jury found him guilty of the capital murder of farah and he was sentenced to death by lethal injection i'm glad justice has prevailed freedom has prevailed victim's family wept when the verdict was read so did frada's family the defendant only stared at the table in front of him after a long investigation frada was charged with hiring a hitman to shoot his wife the gunman's confession was read in court which frada's attorneys objected to are you saying this is an unfair verdict absolutely no question about in my mind frada's family declined comment but the victim's parents who are in custody of their grandchildren said plenty the young girl she still asked for her mother mommy i love you mommy i miss you mommy i know you're in heaven and someday when i'm going to meet you in heaven now that's a lot of torture that's a hell of a lot of dodger in closing arguments frada was portrayed as a sexual deviant lex backer also called him a menace to women betty backer said she wants frada executed wait for the day when i see him laying on that table waiting to get the injection that could be justice for me i know for myself he's gone 13 years later robert's case was overturned due to inadmissible evidence provided during the first trial in 2009 robert had a retrial and was again found guilty and sentenced to death his sentence was carried out on january 10th of 2023. we the jury find the defendant robin allen frada guilty of capital murder as charged in the indictment signed by the foreman how could a person be capable of orchestrating a murder like this and how could that person be so brazen as to ask if so someone would be willing to help carry out the crime. Then, after the murder was committed, go around smiling and winking at the camera just like nothing happened. Simply put, Robert Frota was a narcissist. He definitely thought he was pretty much the center of the universe and that he could not stand the idea of a woman walking out on him. I think Bob thought he knew enough about police work, law enforcement investigations that he didn't have anything to worry about. Bob was very serious about working out in the gym. He was always looking in the mirror. He couldn't go past the mirror without looking into it. He walked into the courtroom and he came out in his suit and all that, still looking very groomed and very sure of himself. What that test really said about Bob Frota was nothing good. I mean, it called him sociopathic, narcissistic. Bob Frota was diagnosed as narcissistic and also having an antisocial personality disorder. A forensic psychologist with over 20 years of experience, Dr. Jeff Kolachewski offers an in-depth look at the mind of a narcissist. A narcissistic personality disorder is characterized by a lifelong pattern of exaggerated feelings of self-importance, an excessive need for admiration, a severe self-centeredness, a diminished ability to empathize with others' feelings, and a lack of self-control. Dr. Jeff Kolachewski offers an in-depth look at the mind of a narcissist.