KING OF PRUSSIA, Pa. - Economics professor Rafael Robb will stand trial on charges of first- and third-degree murder, District Judge William Maruszczak ruled at a preliminary hearing yesterday afternoon.
The court also upheld Robb's Jan. 8 charges of possessing an instrument of crime - though no weapon has been found as of yet - and tampering with and falsifying evidence.
Robb, 56, who has consistently denied involvement in the murder, is being held without bail until the trial.
District Attorney Bruce Castor's argument - supplemented with a string of 10 witnesses - centered around the portrayal of a carefully calculated day in December during which Rafael Robb murdered his wife, Ellen, 49, and then staged the crime scene, in an "amateurish" way, to resemble that of a burglary.
"It could've happened that way, and pigs may one day be able to fly, but I doubt it," Castor said of the likelihood that Ellen Robb was murdered by an outside burglar.
Robb's weapon of choice, Castor said, was likely a metal crowbar.
Art Gregory, Ellen Robb's brother, testified that a crowbar and shovel were missing from the Robbs' garage during the time of the murder.
Gregory said he was well aware of the garage's contents because he helped his sister organize the room five years ago.
He was unable to confirm whether he'd noticed either tool in the garage between the time of the cleaning and the time of the murder.
Castor showed the court a crowbar similar in size and shape to the one that Gregory described. A coroner's report confirmed that such a crowbar would have been capable of causing the specific wounds found on Ellen Robb's body.
Castor subsequently referred to forensic psychologists, who said that the assailant's "obsessive" use of force - making Ellen Robb "unrecognizable" as an "it" or a "thing" - clearly exhibited a personal motive, and thus could be connected to Robb.
Defense lawyer Robert Levant, however, called this argument "a complement to junk science," adding that "no court in the land would let that in."
But whether this psychological analysis carries weight, Castor said, the rift between the couple provides even more evidence for a motive.
Family lawyer Albert Shemtob testified that Ellen Robb had consulted him in October - and several times since then - to discuss a potential divorce from her husband.
According to Shemtob's predictions, if the couple divorced, Ellen Robb would have been entitled to between 50 and 60 percent of all marital assets, as well as the ownership of the couple's Upper Merion Township house and Rafael Robb's pension funds and foreign investments.
Further, Shemtob said, Rafael Robb would have had to pay his wife between $3,700 and $4,500 per month for child support for the couple's 12-year-old daughter, Olivia.
These potentially high numbers, Castor argued, demonstrate a further, "financial motive" that additionally fueled Rafael Robb's alleged decision to commit the murder.
Meanwhile, Levant said the prosecution's case "screams reasonable doubt" and relies too heavily - if not only - on circumstantial evidence.
Alan Tauber, another one of Rafael Robb's defense lawyers, added that "physical evidence is the mother's milk of the prosecution's case," and the lack of such evidence connected to Robb "should be telling."
Tauber specifically referred to the shoe prints surrounding Ellen Robb's body, which were not tied to Rafael Robb's size-12 shoe.
In addition, "the crowbar that [Gregory] last saw approximately five years ago in a wall of garden tools is, to us, better evidence for the defense," Levant said. "If that's what the prosecution is going to reach for, then we welcome anything else that they have to bring on."
After the hearing, Levant said that he, Tauber and a third defense lawyer, Francis Genovese, were "pleased" with how the hearing went and are "excited about vigorously presenting the defense" at the trial.
"I'm expecting an acquittal," Levant said.
Castor would not provide additional comment for this article.
