This is the first truthful statement I am giving on my own free will about my knowledge of the Farah Fratta murder.

I knew Bob Fratta for several years before Farah's death.  I knew him casually from the gym and didn't really like him.  I had also seen his wife Farah at the gym and my girlfriend, Mary Gipp was friendly with her and had her phone number.  I knew Farah and Bob were going through a bad divorce and custody battle.

I knew Howard Guidry about a month or two before the murder.  I had met Bill Planter through Kevin Miller and Bob Trent.

Around a year before the shooting, Kevin and I ran into Farah at a Randall's in Humble.  She was wearing her usual sexy thong workout clothes with her cleavage showing and a headband.  She knew my name and said hello.  I introduced her to Kevin.  He had seen her at the gym also.  Somewhere in the conversation I told her that I didn't like Bob and mentioned to her that he was telling people that he wished she were dead.  She smiled and said she knew and was going to figure out things to do to get to him even more.  She said she hated him and wanted to make him suffer.  Kevin didn't know Bob and jokingly offered to help Farah in any way she wanted.  Farah said Kevin didn't sound serious and probably wouldn't want to do something that might not be legal.  Kevin said, "Lady you don't know me.  I was in the Army and could kill your husband without even blinking."  Farah asked for and got his telephone number and said, "we'll talk" and left.

As time went on, Kevin told me that Farah had paid him to break into Bob's house to look for video tapes, audio tapes and a diary that Bob had as evidence against Farah for the divorce battle.  He said she got some audio tapes and diary, but didn't find the video.  He told me he went into Bob's house several times over the course of months and Farah was with him one time because she wanted to look through video tapes for one in particular.  He said they were drinking a bottle of Bob's wine while viewing the video tapes on his VCR and that they almost got caught when a friend of Bob's unexpectedly came inside and took a shower.  He said Farah also paid him to mess with Bob's car and house so he'd have to spend money to fix it all.  He mentioned about stabbing a hole in the toilet tank filler tube so his house would flood.  At one time he told me that Farah staged a fake break-in of her house to make it look like Bob did it.  He said Farah showed him which windows didn't have alarms on them and he drilled a hole in one to unlock it.  He said he bought a bottle of liquor for them to drink because he thought he was going to have sex with her before they carried out her plan to call the police, but that she had her children sleeping in bed with her and after he woke her up, she woke the kids up and pulled them in front of her and started screaming.  He said he felt awful because the kids were all scared and crying and he did his best to talk nicely to them to calm them down.  Hearing how Farah purposely wanted her children to witness her scam and not caring that she traumatized them, really pissed me off.  I even told Howard about that.  Kevin told me that Farah had called the police several times, trying to get Bob arrested for different things he didn't do but since none of that worked, she was planning to do something big. That was about a month before her death.  I told Kevin I didn't want to hear anymore about Farah because I had gotten to know Bob better and was even doing some work on his cars.  I had seen him with his 3 children several times and he seemed to be a good, loving father and his kids really loved him.  I thought it was stupid that Farah was doing all the crap to Bob just to win the house and child support payments after Bob had told me that she refused to agree to joint custody.  As I got to know Bob, I understood why he was so frustrated with Farah.

A few days before Farah's death, Kevin came by my apartment and told me that Farah was paying big money for a job that he could use a little help with.  He said Farah planned staging some fake attempted murder on Wednesday night and had arranged for Bob to take the children to church so they wouldn't be around this time, like the last time.  I stopped Kevin and told him that I didn't want to have anything to do with Farah's jobs against Bob.  I told him to find someone else.  Howard told me soon afterwards that he'd spoken with Kevin and was going to drive a car for him and get a gun in return.  I said, "whatever" and changed the topic.  (I had previously introduced Kevin and Howard so they knew one another already).  I remember mumbling something to Mary about Farah's planned murder while Bob had the kids at church.  Mary had seen me talking with Howard and asked if we were going to kill Farah.  I said, "no" in my typical way with Mary.  I loved Mary but we had an unusual relationship.  She was intrigued with me whenever I talked like I was a shady gangster.  She would always ask me questions wanting to know if I was involved in something illegal, but asked me in a way that was like a game; like she wanted me to either say "yes" or at least say "no" in a way that was mysterious.  Kind of a sarcastic way of letting her think that I was.  I knew Mary liked me because I was mysterious to her like that.  I don't know if it was the prozac that made her like that, but I do know Mary's statements are all false.  Some of what Mary said is from our playing this "game" with one another, but the rest is either from Mary's confusion or detectives coercing and brainwashing her.  For example, Mary said she saw me with a silver gun months before Farah's death, yet claims it was the murder weapon, which was dark blue.  The silver gun Mary saw was a silver gun and belonged to Bob Trent's girlfriend.  The reason Mary didn't see me leave with that, or any gun, is because I didn't.  I did not have a murder weapon in my possession until after Farah's death.  For months Mary was almost obsessed with anything having to do with the Fratta's.  She enjoyed hearing secretive stuff about them, so I fed her lies based on rumors she heard and also bits and pieces she may have overheard while I was on the phone with Kevin. I never told Mary the truth about Kevin and Farah because of the "game", so I don't know if she knows anything about them.

I had no intention of being involved in Farah's scam that Wednesday night.  I came home around 5:45pm and saw Howard outside.  He told me that his sister hadn't come home yet and asked if he could either borrow my car or if I could drive him to Food City.  I told him I really didn't want to, but I'd drive him because I wanted to make sure I was able to workout.  Plus, I figured I would stop by Bob Trent's house, who lived near there.  I brought Mary's cell phone with me and called her to let her know I had it.  As we drove to Food City, Howard and I started talking about Kevin, Bob and Farah and I told him that I didn't want to have anything to do with Farah's jobs because I was sort of friends with Bob and felt sorry for him because her jobs were always something against Bob just so she could try to win the divorce battle that she thought she was going to lose.  (Kevin had told me Farah was so stressed over losing, that she was taking prozac).  Howard told me about picking up a new car from Farah and following Kevin to a drop-off point and asked me if it was legal.  I told him that Kevin probably had something planned for afterward, but that I didn't think he'd lie to Howard about his driving the car being legal.  I advised Howard to just not ask Kevin for details of what he was going to do afterwards because it was probably something to try to frame Bob.  I called Bob to see if he was going to the gym that night because I had told him I'd get with him about fixing his Jeep's steering column.  I got his pager.  He paged me back with a telephone number and I called him at that number.  He said he was at Wyatt's and that he was going to try to get to the gym because he'd only done 1/2 a workout earlier, but that if he went, it wouldn't be until at least 9:00pm.  We then arrived at Food City and Kevin was already there.  He used Mary's cell phone to call Farah but she didn't pick up.  He got in my car and asked me to drive past Farah's house and gave me directions.  I told him I wasn't stopping there because I didn't want anything to do with this.  It didn't look like she was home anyway, so I drove back to Food City.  Kevin got out and went to his car.  I started giving Howard the number to Mary's phone so he could call me when he was done, but he asked if he could borrow the phone so he could use it to call me if things didn't go the way Kevin said they would.  He asked me to wait there for him.  I said, "alright" and figured he could call me on the payphone instead of my pager if he needed to talk.  We went to a payphone, got the number, and called to see if it rang.  It worked.  He and Kevin then left in Kevin's car.  A few minutes later the payphone rang.  It was Howard to let me know that Kevin said Farah wouldn't be home until 8:00pm and asked if I'd please wait for him.  I wasn't happy about that but, I told him I'd wait until a little after 8:00pm to make sure everything was okay for him, but that he would have to page me after that.

As I was waiting for Howard to call, I started getting some crazy thoughts.  I remembered when I spoke to Bob at Wyatt's, he said he had to drop his children off at Farah's before he went to the gym and I started wondering if Farah was purposely waiting until 8pm to get home because she was actually trying to stage something where Kevin or someone was supposed to hurt Bob.  I got concerned and wasn't about to let something like that happen if I could prevent it.  At about 7:45pm I called Bob's pager and left a message, I think twice.  After about 5 minutes, I was just about to page him again when he finally paged me with a number.  I called right back.  I made up some excuse about just wanting to know if he'd be at his home soon so I could look at his Jeep.  He said he was still at the church and would be there till at least 8:30pm before dropping his children off at Farah's.  I heard a child's voice and asked who it was.  Bob said he was holding his son Bradley.  He said he still planned on going to the gym and then sleeping at the fire station he worked at and that we'd have to get together about the Jeep on his days off.  That was the last time I spoke with Bob for about a week.

The phone rang after I hung up.  It was Howard and he said to come get him quick.  I drove right to Farah's house and picked him up in front of the garage.  I did not see Kevin there, but I thought I had seen his car leaving the subdivision.  Howard jumped in and said to get out of there quick.  He was freaking out and I asked what the hell happened.  He told me that he thought Kevin killed Farah.  I told him no, that Kevin said something about faking an attempted murder and that everything was fine and to calm down.  He said "No Man", that he saw Kevin shoot her and she fell to the ground.  He said Kevin walked over to her and he heard him shoot her again.  He pulled a gun out from his pants and said it was the gun Kevin used.  I couldn't believe it.  Howard told me everything that Kevin told him about what Howard was supposed to do and how nothing went as Kevin had said.  Howard said Farah had her boyfriend's car and that's what he was supposed to drive.  Howard gave me the gun and asked me to get rid of it.  We arrived at our apartments and I went inside and inspected the gun.  I noticed 2 bullets had been fired just like Howard said.  I believe I told Mary that I had to go to the gym to see if Bob was there because I thought Farah was dead.  I wanted to know if Bob went to her house and found out what went on.  I was still hoping it was all fake and staged like Kevin had said.

I went to the gym, but Bob wasn't there.  I started driving to Bob's house and I could see cop cars around the subdivision.  Instead, I decided to drive past Farah's house first..  When I got to her street I could see cop cars by her house and that it was all taped off, so I immediately left.  The next day I heard on the news that Farah had died and I got scared.  I realized my car was now a suspect getaway car, so I fixed a broken headlight and later sold it to a junkyard.  Detectives on the news were blaming Bob for Farah's death, so Mary figured Howard and I killed her because Bob had hired us.  I was scared but tried to still play the game with Mary when she asked me questions about it.  I told her some details but not the whole truth.  I didn't tell her about Kevin because she liked thinking Howard and I did it.  I figured the detectives would find out about Farah and Kevin from someone, but I didn't want to be the one to snitch and worry about any retaliation.  I was in fear for my life and also didn't want to go to jail for something I didn't even have anything to do with.

Kevin came by a few days later and I told him I didn't want to be seen with him right now.  He was real upset and apologized for everything.  He said he needed to talk to me cause he was scared.  He said he knew Howard didn't leave the gun at the scene and asked where it was.  I told him Howard had given it to me but that I gave it back to him.  Kevin said that the gun was registered to Bob and that Bob had given the gun to Farah and Farah gave the gun to Kevin.  He also said he was going to ask Bill Planter for his help because Farah's dad knew Kevin was working for Farah and Kevin was afraid her dad wanted to kill him now..  He said he wanted to tell both me and Howard what happened in case something happened to him, so we got Howard.

Kevin started by saying that he accidentally shot Farah.  He told Howard about the fake attempted murder he had told me about, along with other things he had previously told me.  Kevin said he was supposed to just fire a shot through Farah's hair, leave Bob's gun at the scene and take the car.  He said Farah said people wouldn't have known Bob had given the gun to Farah and that Bob would be blamed for hiring someone to kill Farah with his own gun, but that things went wrong.  Howard said he didn't leave the gun because his fingerprints were on it.  Kevin said everything got messed up because Farah was nervous seeing Howard there and her hair was too close to her head and she was telling him to hurry up, so he got nervous too.  Kevin did acid and weed and I think he was high that night.  Kevin told us about Farah's dad, Lex Baquer and that Lex knew about Kevin and was the one Farah was getting the money from to pay him.  Howard asked if Lex knew about him and Kevin said, "no", but that he was scared because Lex had friends in high places and also Masons.  Howard had asked for more information and Kevin told him about the staged break-in to Farah's house, the taking of tapes from Bob's house and stealing over 100 grand from Bob's bank account by forging his name and that if Bob didn't get all the suspicion over Farah's death, Lex might get in trouble for being in on all of those things.  Kevin said they staged this last car jacking and attempted murder because all the other times they tried to set Bob up, had failed.  Kevin told Howard that he was going to give him a 9mm gun. but Howard said don't worry about it, forget it.

After Howard went back in his apartment, Kevin told me that after he accidentally shot Farah, she was on the ground moaning.  He said he figured she was dying and he freaked out and shot her again to end her suffering.

On the night of the shooting, 11/9/94, Howard was wearing all black (shirt and pants).  Kevin was wearing lighter clothes, I don't remember exactly what.  But his pants were the "red or maroon" that the witness across the street said she saw in her statement.  That would have been Kevin.

On 11/18/94, Harris County detectives picked me up for questioning and beat me.  I complained to Don Clark at the FBI office afterwards, but they did nothing.

Detectives kept harassing me and Mary.  On or about (see Constable call slip), detective Valerio pulled his gun and pointed it at me in front of a Precinct 4 constable while I was at Bob Trent's house.

After I came back from Wisconsin with Mary, I heard Bill Planter had been arrested for soliciting to kill Bob.

When I was arrested at the Red Lobster and later released, I did NOT ask Det. Sgt. Billingsley to talk and did not tell him that things went as he figured.  Billingsley lied about all that.

I knew Howard never got rid of Bob's gun and that he was arrested with it after he robbed a bank on 3/1/95.  I never ran because I figured Howard's arrest would be good for me. I figured the police would trace the gun to Bob and then they'd question Howard about Farah's death and find out about Kevin.

I was arrested on 3/13/95 and brought before assistant D.A. Dan Rizzo.  I told Mr. Rizzo I needed to speak with an attorney..  Mr. Rizzo told the detectives that, because I had invoked my right to an attorney, they were to take me straight to the Harris County jail.  Detective Valerio and another detective (Davis?) drove me to the jail Sally Port, but then Valerio suddenly turned to me and said, "no.  I don't care what Rizzo said.  You're gonna sign a statement."  I said, "I'm not signing anything" and started to continue about wanting to speak with an attorney, but Valerio then grabbed me hard around my throat and started strangling me.  I was cuffed behind my back and totally unable to defend myself.  Valerio had a psychotic, insane look in his eyes and told me "you're gonna sign a statement, or I'm gonna kill you right here and now."  I couldn't breath and started passing out, so I gasped "Okay", and he released his hands from my neck.  As I was coughing, trying to catch my breath and blinking my eyes to be able to see through the tears caused by my being choked so hard, Valerio told the other detective to drive back to their headquarters at 601 Lockwood.  As we approached, I could see the media crews were still there and Valerio told the detective to drive to the opposite entrance so the media won't see me with strangulation marks on my neck.  I was taken into the building where the media didn't see me.  It was then I was forced to sign the statement Valerio typed up at another desk and brought over to me.  After I signed it, I was then taken back to the jail and booked in.

I never gave the statement that has been used against me.  The detectives typed it up themselves.

My 1st attorney, Ken McLean, didn't even want to hear about the truth.  All he tried to get me to do was cut a deal to testify against Bob.  He said the D.A. wanted Fratta to be "pushing up daisies" and were offering me 25 years to start off with.  After a little while, he came down to 3 years.  I told him I wouldn't lie about all this for a 1 year deal because none of us 3 were guilty.  I also noticed he was wearing a Masonic ring (compass and crescent moon) and remembered what Kevin said about Lex and Masons and knew this was all a scam just to protect Lex.  I started realizing why Kevin was so scared.

Since I learned that Kevin died on (May '95?), I have no doubt he was murdered and I don't trust anyone in the Harris County system.  I am coming forward to make this statement now because I have come to the sad realization that the entire appellate process is corrupt and faulty and our convictions will not be overturned on our constitutional rights violations as I initially thought would easily occur.

This statement is true and accurate to the best of my recollection.