Ex-Penn prof, wife-killer, denied $3M+ in assets

Rafael Robb, the jailed Ivy League professor and admitted wife killer, will not recover more than $3 million in assets, including his hefty pension from the University of Pennsylvania, a Montgomery County Court has ruled.

Remembered for bludgeoning his wife, Ellen,to death with an exercise bar in their Delaware County home in 2006 while in the midst of a divorce, Robb pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter a year later, and has been behind bars ever since.

Citing the state’s “Slayer Act” – no pun here – the court blocked Robb’s bid to recover money in the form of assets, an IRA and a $2 million-plus pension from Penn.

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“We were very pleased that the court recognized that Ellen was very well on her way to emancipation, and that no one should profit from domestic violence, let alone the brutal killing that was reportedly the worst ever in Montgomery County in over 50 years,” Ellen’s brother, Gary Gregory, told Metro Thursday.

Common Pleas Judge Thomas DelRicci, ruling on a motion filed by attorneys for the estate of Robb’s wife, Ellen Gregory Robb, denied the killer’s motion seeking the monies. Robb’s attorneys argued that his estate, consisting of the couple’s only child, had no legal right to the assets, the IRA or the pension. But the court disagreed.

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DeRicci opined, “Ellen Gregory would have been entitled to all or the majority of these funds if Rafael Robb had not beaten her to death before the divorce could be completed.”

“He should not be allowed to enjoy his money while Ellen lies in a coffin after he slaughtered her,” said Bob Mongeluzzi, the attorney for Ellen GregoryRobb’s estate.

“So it was a wise and very practical decision by Judge DelRicci, who truly did justice in the truest sense of the word.”

Mongeluzzi said Robb will have served the last of his 10-year sentence in 2016 and is up for parole in February. He is opposing parole vehemently, as he and co-counsel consider Robb a flight risk.