Robb's lawyer wants incriminating testimony barred from trial

Ellen Robb's death was a personal attack made by someone who wanted her face bludgeoned so badly that she became "hardly recognizable as a human being," according to two mental-health professionals.

But the lawyer for Rafael Robb, the Economics professor who will face trial this fall in connection with the death of Ellen, his wife, wants to bar that expert testimony from court.

On Aug. 27, Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas Judge Paul Tressler scheduled an Oct. 12 hearing for the defense and prosecution to argue the issue.

Robb, 56, has been charged with first-degree murder in Ellen Robb's Dec. 22, 2006, death. Ellen Robb was bludgeoned to death in the couple's Wayne, Pa., home.

In the affidavit of probable cause for Robb's arrest, a psychologist and a psychiatrist who examined photographs of the victim and crime scene stated that the "obsessive intensity of force used against Mrs. Robb went beyond that necessary to cause her death," and that the killer demonstrated a "need to depersonalize" Ellen Robb.

The testimony also asserts that the killing was done in a manner that would make it unlikely that a burglar was the culprit, implying that Ellen Robb's killer was probably someone who knew her and wanted to see her suffer.

Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce Castor said the mental-health experts' testimony centers on the pattern of rage exhibited in a "killer who was specifically trying to remove that person's identity from the face of the earth."

But Robb's lawyer, Frank DeSimone, wants to exclude those statements, citing a 1995 Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision rejecting expert testimony.

That case barred such testimony because it would "intrude upon the jury's basic function of deciding credibility."

Defense lawyers frequently file such motions to prevent experts from making judgments that should be decided by the jury, said Daniel Filler, a professor at the Drexel University College of Law.

"All the jury needs is to be told the facts of the case," he said. "The more the expert is being asked to opine on the central issue of the case, the more [defense attorneys] will try to block it, and the less proper it is."

Also under discussion at the October hearing will be a motion filed by DeSimone to throw out the case based on insufficient evidence presented at Robb's preliminary hearing.

DeSimone would not comment further on the two motions because court proceedings are pending.

Castor said he believes the defense wants the expert testimony excluded because "it really hurts."

He added that there is little chance the case will be dismissed entirely, saying that he has "never seen a case thrown out" in 21 years of trying murder cases.

Robb's trial is set for Nov. 26.

He has been placed on indefinite administrative leave from Penn and is currently in custody at the Montgomery County Prison. He could face life in prison if convicted.

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