Robb to rely on surveillance footage for alibi

Economics professor and accused murderer Rafael Robb plans to use surveillance-camera footage at several locations he visited the morning his wife was killed in order to provide an alibi at his November trial, according to court papers filed Friday.

In the papers, defense attorney Frank DeSimone outlines Robb's activities on the morning of Dec. 22, 2006, the day Robb's wife, Ellen, was found bludgeoned to death in the couple's Wayne, Pa. home.

Robb, 56, is charged with first-degree murder and staging a burglary to cover his actions in Ellen Robb's killing.

Rafael Robb's activities that morning include taking his daughter, Olivia, to school, returning home to shower, leaving again to purchase fruit in Chinatown, shopping at Wawa and coming to work at Penn, DeSimone said in court papers.

Video surveillance shows some of Robb's activities that day, including arriving at Olivia's school and entering and exiting a University parking garage, DeSimone said.

The papers state that Ellen Robb was alive when Rafael Robb was briefly at home between taking Olivia to school and going to work at Penn, and Wawa surveillance footage shows Robb in the store at around 11:56 a.m.

Authorities say Ellen Robb was killed between 8 a.m. and noon that day, making evidence and eyewitness testimony that documents Rafael Robb's activities during that time vital to his defense.

Robb called the police at 1:45 p.m. to report that he had found his wife's dead body.

But prosecutors said the series of events outlined by DeSimone doesn't do anything to absolve Robb of his wife's murder.

"If I thought he had an alibi, he wouldn't have been arrested," said Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce

Castor.

Also Friday, defense attorneys asked Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas Judge Paul Tressler to dismiss the case, arguing prosecutors had not presented enough evidence to go to trial.

The defense also argued that prosecutors should not be able to call two mental-health experts to testify that, in their view, Ellen Robb's death was a personal attack that could not have been committed by a random assailant.

The defense has argued that the testimony would lead jurors to a conclusion they should reach on their own. Expert testimony is generally allowed only to explain complicated or obscure issues, or to add context to the evidence presented - it is not meant to force jurors to conclusions about the case.

Tressler did not make a ruling on either motion Friday.

Robb is currently being held without bail in the Montgomery County Prison and has been placed on indefinite academic leave from Penn. His trial is scheduled to begin Nov. 26.

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