Family seeks damages from convicted killer Robb

Rafael Robb, imprisoned for beating his wife to death in their Upper Merion Township home in 2006, now faces a Montgomery County Court jury that will decide whether to award his remaining assets to his daughter.

Olivia Robb, now 20, is estranged from her father, and both are expected to testify about the case for the first time.

Rafael Robb, formerly an economics professor at the University of Pennsylvania, was sentenced to five to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to manslaughter in 2007.

Attorneys for his late wife, Ellen Gregory Robb, are suing Robb for punitive and compensatory damages under the state's wrongful death act. Ellen Robb's brother represents her estate, but attorney Robert Mongeluzzi said any jury award would go to Olivia Robb.

Mongeluzzi estimated that Robb's assets and investments are "in the millions." Robb, who was led into the courtroom in handcuffs Monday, is also expected to testify.

In opening arguments before Judge Thomas M. Del Ricci, Mongeluzzi told the jury of four women and eight men that Robb attacked his 49-year-old wife with a metal bar while she was wrapping Christmas presents in their kitchen, hitting her over and over again until she was unrecognizable, then attempted to stage a robbery scene in the house.

He told jurors that Robb would attempt to paint the killing as a moment of unplanned anger sparked by an argument but urged them to remember how much Ellen Robb suffered.

"She lays in a coffin in a grave," he said. "She cannot speak. Let your verdict speak for her."

Robb has said he flew into a rage when his wife pushed him, causing him to hit his head. On Monday his attorney, Eric Levin, said the crime was not premeditated.

"He does not deny that it was, for lack of a better word, brutal," he said. "But was this in the heat of the moment, or was it planned?"

Jurors also saw photographs of the Robbs' split-level house in a leafy yard, and crime scene photographs showing the kitchen walls and cabinets sprayed with blood, some drops reaching almost to the ceiling.

The trial is expected to last through the week.