I had never met or heard of Bob Fratta until the night of the shooting.  I knew Joe Prystash from the apartments we lived at..  We used to talk on the balcony.  We used to talk like we were bad asses.  We had fun talking trash.  Joe said he talked trash to his girlfriend Mary too because she got off to thinking that he was a gansta type. 

I had met a friend of Joe's one day named Kevin Miller.  I had asked Joe if he could get me a gun because I needed money and planned on robbing a bank.  Joe said he couldn't, but that Kevin might be able to.  I saw Kevin again I think two or three days before the shooting in the parking lot.  He had just come from Joe's apartment.  I asked him if he had a gun he could sell me cheap.  He told me he could probably get me one and started to leave.  He then came back and told me that he was going to ask Joe to do something with him, but that I could do it instead and he would give me a gun.  I asked what it was.  He said all I had to do was drive a car.  I asked for details and if it was legal.  He said it was totally legal.  All I had to do was go with him to some lady's house where she was going to give us a car and all I had to do was follow Kevin to a drop off point.  I said there's gotta be more to it than that, otherwise you wouldn't pay me.  I asked if there were drugs involved and he said, "no."  He said that my part was totally legal and there were no drugs involved.

 

He told me he was doing some business with the lady where she was giving him a car, and all he needed me to do was drive the car and follow him to a drop off point not far away.  Then he would take me back to where I left my car at a meeting point.  I asked where the meeting point would be.  He said down 1960 in Atascocita.  He said he would meet me there and drive me to the lady's house.  She'd give us the car and I would drive it behind him to a drop off point.  Then he'd take me back to my car and give me a gun.  I asked if he could give me a 9mm.  He said, 'yeah'.  I said.  "alright, when and where do we meet?"  He said to meet him Wednesday night at about 6:00pm at Food City, which he said was at the first major intersection in Atascocita.  He said Food City would be on the left and a Budget Chopper on the right and that there was a traffic light there and some gas stations and that I couldn't miss it.  I said, "okay". I saw Joe afterwards and told him I was going to do something with Kevin.  He said. "whatever" and we dropped it.  Come Wednesday night my sister wasn't home and I had no car.  I waited by the stairs for Joe to get home and I asked him if I could borrow his car.  He said he would drive me because he wanted to make sure he got to the gym to workout. 

He had Mary's cell phone and called her after we left to let her know he had it and I think she called him right back.  We talked on the way to Food City.  He told me that Kevin had "connections", but he didn't think he would lie about my part being legal.  He said he knew Kevin was doing jobs for this lady and that he knew her too.  He said he didn't want to get involved with her jobs because he was a little friendly with her husband, Bob.  He said they were going through a bad divorce and that her jobs always involved doing something to Bob so that she would win custody of their kids.  He said that even though driving the car was legal, he didn't want anything to do with it because he thought Bob was a good father and felt bad for him.  He also said he was pissed off at Bob's wife because of what she had put their children through.

He said she had staged some fake break-in and purposely had their children sleeping downstairs with her so she could wake them up to witness it.  He said she held the children in front of her in a manner of "kill my kids before me" and she had the children all terrified and crying. (He didn't say if he saw this or was told this but he called her a "bitch" for doing that.)

 

Then he said he was going to call Bob "to see if he was working out tonight."  He called on Mary's phone and left a message.  Apparently Bob got the messages and paged Joe back.  Joe then called Bob and asked if he was going to workout that night.  I heard Joe say something about 9:00 o'clock.  We arrived at Food city as he finished talking to Bob.  Kevin came over to the car and said I was late.  I told him I didn't have a car so I had to wait for Joe to get home.  He said it was alright because the lady was going to be late also.  Kevin then used Mary's phone to call the lady.  He said she didn't answer and then hopped in Joe's car and told him to drive past her house.  She wasn't home. 

We went back to Food City and Kevin got out and went to his car.  I asked Joe if he could wait for me there and let me borrow Mary's phone in case I wanted to get a hold of him.  He said he would and we went to a payphone, got the number and called it to see if it worked.  It did.  Then Kevin took me to Farah's house in his car (which was a light or off white compact car, possibly a 2 door Ford Escort) and told me that she wouldn't be home until 8:00pm at the latest.  He parked about a house away and we walked across the front yard and into the back yard through a side gate between the house and the garage.  Kevin had to reach around the gate to open it because it was locked or stuck.  I called Joe at the payphone to tell him I may be there until 8:00pm and asked if he'd wait.  He wasn't happy, but he said he would.

While Kevin and I were waiting for Farah to come home he told me not to be nervous, that what I was doing was not illegal and he would even introduce me to Farah (that was when I learned her name).  He told me that her boyfriend had a car dealership and that she was bringing home a new car of his.  He said she was going to back the car in to the garage and leave the door open so all I had to do was drive it straight out and wait for him at this car.  We heard the garage door open and I saw a lady  back a new looking white car up the driveway.  Kevin said that was Farah and the car and then put some gloves on that he had in his sweatshirt (or jacket) pockets.  I heard the car turn off and then Farah unlocked and opened the side garage door.  Kevin introduced me to her and told me to wait by the driveway.  I walked out the front of the garage while Farah and Kevin talked.  I turned my back to them to give them some privacy, but I heard Farah say something about the car keys and to "hurry up."  I heard Kevin say something like, "okay, let's do it. Scream!"  I turned around and saw Kevin pointing a gun at her.  Kevin was standing by the front of the car and Farah was by the driver's door.  I don't remember if she screamed first and then he fired a shot or if he fired a shot and then she screamed, but after Kevin fired a shot, Farah fell to the ground.

I heard Kevin say, "Oh shit!  Oh Fuck!"  and started walking over to her while I freaked out and ran behind a tree on the far side of the garage and started calling Joe on the phone and I heard another shot. Joe picked up and I told him to come get me quick!  Then Kevin scared the crap out of me when he suddenly hopped on top of the fence behind me and said, "Let's get out of here."  I told him to go without me because I had called Joe and was waiting for him. (I did that because I was afraid he was going to kill me).  Then he said that since I was waiting for Joe, for me to put the gun there by the front of the garage and he tossed me the gun.  Then he took off back through the back yard, I suppose to his car. I wasn't about to leave the gun there with my fingerprints all over it, so I put it in my pants and waited for Joe. 

As I waited I walked onto the driveway and looked into the garage and saw Farah on the ground next to the car and there was blood by her head.  Joe picked me up in front of the driveway and we left.  He asked what happened and I told him that I thought Kevin killed Farah.  Joe didn't believe me, so I pulled out the gun and gave it to him and said that Kevin fired 2 shots with it.  I told Joe the whole story of what happened and asked him to get rid of the gun.  He said that if what I said was true, that something had to have gone real bad.  He said that he was still going to the gym after he dropped me off and that if Bob showed up he would act like he didn't know anything about Farah.  He said he didn't know anything like this would happen ahead of time.  He said that all he knew was that Kevin and Farah were probably going to do something afterwards to try to frame Bob for something because of the divorce battle.  He said he figured it would just be some minor bullshit that wouldn't work anyway and that he didn't want to know the details from Kevin. When we arrived back home, I went into my apartment and Joe went into his for a little while before I saw him leave again.

I was wearing a black shirt and black pants that night.  I know now that a witness saw Kevin and said he was wearing red or maroon pants.  I guess you could say Kevin's pants were red but I think they were more brown or maroon and his sweatshirt or jacket was medium to dark blue.

Joe gave me the gun back the next day and told me to get rid of it.

Kevin came by my apartment a few days later with Joe and told me he was real sorry about the way things went down.  He was scared and said he wanted to tell me and Joe exactly what happened in case something happened to him. He said that his shooting Farah was a total accident.  A fuck up. He said that he and Farah had staged a fake car jacking and attempted murder to frame Bob to win the custody battle. He said he was supposed to fire a shot into her hair and drop the gun at the scene.  He said that Farah didn't know he was bringing me with him and that when she told him to hurry up, everything just got messed up.  He said he knew I didn't leave the gun at the scene.  I told him I didn't because my fingerprints got on it when he threw it to me. He said that the gun was registered to Bob and that was how Bob was supposed to be framed and that I should get rid of it.  Kevin said Farah's dad knew of this plan and had told the police that Bob was responsible for her death, but now there was no evidence to back up what he told the cops.  Kevin said her dad was real pissed and Kevin was scared .  I asked if her dad was anyone to be afraid of and if he knew any thing about me being there.  He said her dad was wealthy and had a lot of friends in high places and something about Masons, but that he didn't know anything about me. 

Kevin said that if Bob didn't catch all the suspicion over Farah's death, that people might find out that her dad knew about illegal things that they had done to Bob.  I was afraid of Kevin and thought that he or someone might try to kill me, so I told him I would keep quiet about everything but I needed to know more in case her dad ever came after us.  He said the dad's name was Lex Backer (Baquer).  He told me that Farah hired him to break into Bob's house to get some tapes that Bob had made of Farah and Lex and their attorney that would have helped him win custody of the children.  He also mentioned the same break-in type deal Joe mentioned and said it was about six months earlier and that it was supposed to frame Bob, but didn't work. He also told us that Farah and Lex stole a lot of money from Bob's bank account by forging his name to something.  I asked how much and he said over 100 grand.  He said Farah tried setting Bob up several times for stuff, but that the cops never did anything to him and that was why they had staged this car jacking and attempted murder using his gun. Kevin told me that he was still going to give me a 9mm.  I told him to forget about it.  I just wanted to drop it all and I never saw Kevin again.

I did not get rid of the gun.  I kept it and used it for a bank robbery.  I am not a violent person, so when the cops chased me after the robbery, I surrendered instead of shooting at anyone.  I was arrested and held in the Harris County Jail.  On 3/7/95, detectives got me and said that they were going to nail me with capital murder charges for killing Farah Fratta.  I told them I didn't do it and asked to call my attorney.  I was going to tell my attorney the entire truth, but they refused to let me call him.  Instead, they claimed they spoke with him and that he said I should give a statement without him.  I knew they were lying to me and I got scared and told them the truth about me, Kevin and Joe, but they didn't want to hear it. They showed me Prystash's statement, and detectives Hoffman and Roberts threatened to beat me if I didn't go along with it.  Prystash's statement, and the detectives never said anything about Kevin, just me, Joe and Bob. 

I admitted that I was only supposed to drive a car and also told what Joe and I were wearing that night, but they made it clear they wanted me to say that Bob hired me and Joe to kill Farah.  So I made some things up that I figured they wanted to hear.  They wrote up a statement and made me sign it. Then I took a polygraph based on that statement and they told me I failed it.  Then they started reading Mary's statement and other stuff and talked things over to themselves. Then they wrote up another statement they claimed matched their evidence better and made me sign it and forced me to do a video based on what was written in that statement. 

I couldn't believe what was going on.  I was only eighteen at the time and I was scared and didn't want to be beaten so I figured the only thing to do was just go along with their lies until I could speak with my attorney. I thought for sure it wouldn't matter if I did whatever the detectives forced me to do since I was taught that there were civil rights laws that were written to protect us against such police abuse and brutality.  I figured once I told my attorney all about these corrupt detectives, their statements and video could not possibly be used, especially since it was not the truth.

The detectives also never had me take a polygraph after their second false statement and video tape.  If they had, I would have failed that one too.

I never knew anything about Farah and Kevin's plan to frame Bob ahead of time.  I believe that Kevin's shooting Farah was an accident at first and then he just freaked out.  I honestly thought that my part of driving the car was completely legal.  I figured that Kevin paying me with a 9mm was only for me not to tell anyone about him working for Farah, for whatever reason he had.

This statement is the truth and is accurate as I can remember and can be verified if the detectives produce a complete unedited video tape of the interrogation while I was at 601 Lockwood.  They were viewing the filming from another room.