The psychiatric records of former Economics professor Rafael Robb and his murdered wife, Ellen, were released to both prosecutors and Robb's defense attorneys over the summer.
Robb, 57, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter last November, saying he beat Ellen Robb to death on Dec. 22, 2006, with a chin-up bar.
In May, Robb's attorney, Frank DeSimone, asked Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge Paul Tressler to allow the defense to examine the Robbs' psychiatric records. At a hearing that month, DeSimone said he wanted Tressler to get "a better picture of what was going on" before Robb is sentenced.
Robb's sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 6.
His attorneys have hired a mental-health expert to examine the records and determine how best to use them, according to Bob Sander, the assistant district attorney on the case. DeSimone did not return calls for comment.
The defense will then develop a report and send it to the prosecution. The district attorney's office is waiting to see the report before deciding how to proceed, Sander said.
He added that it is possible that prosecutors will hire their own expert and prepare their own report.
Sander said he believes the defense wants to use the mental health records to try "to blame the victim for her murder."
Former District Attorney Bruce Castor, another prosecutor on the case, said at a May hearing that he expects the defense will use Ellen Robb's records to argue that her own issues led to her death. Castor is now a Montgomery County commissioner.
Sander said he does not expect Robb's sentencing to be postponed.
Standard sentencing guidelines in Pennsylvania call for a sentence of four-and-a-half to six years in prison for a voluntary manslaughter plea, but it is possible Robb could receive a sentence in the range of 10 to 20 years.
At his guilty plProxy-Connection: keep-alive Cache-Control: max-age=0
, Robb said he "just lost it" during a fight with Ellen after the couple got into an argument over a trip their daughter Olivia was going to take that winter.
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