AFFIDAVIT OF PROBABLE CAUSE (Continued)
V. STATEMENTS OF DR. RAFAEL ROBB
A. Initial Written Statement
On December 22, 2006, Upper Merion Detective Elbert Lee and Montgomery County Detective Christopher Kuklentz interviewed Dr. Robb who told them, among other things, the following:
- He took his daughter to school in the morning. He returned home at around 8:30 AM. While he was home, he took a shower and talked to his wife.
- Between 8:30 and 9:30 AM, he left his home and headed to Philadelphia. He is a Professor of Economics at the University of Pennsylvania;
- Before going to his office at Penn, he stopped at a food market on 10th Street in Chinatown. There he purchased a bag of fruit. He then went to his office on Penn’s campus;
- After tending to his business he got in his car and drove to a Wawa on Walnut or Chestnut Streets where he bought a bottle of soda. He returned to his car to find he had received a parking ticket.
- He then drove directly to his home. He made no stops. This ride took about 50 minutes.
- Dr. Robb entered his home through the garage. Once inside his family room, he saw his wife’s body on the kitchen floor. He walked into the kitchen, put down his laptop and briefcase and “touched her face.” He then picked up his laptop computer and briefcase and went upstairs to his office. He put his laptop and briefcase on his bed.
- The family dog, Copper, was barking inside his daughter’’s bedroom. According to Dr. Robb, that is why he went to his daughter’s bedroom. In a subsequent response to a question, he added, seemingly as an afterthought, that he went there also to see if his daughter was there. Dr. Robb opened the door to his daughter’s bedroom, saw that the dog was there, and then closed the dog in the room.
- From here, Dr. Robb went to the kitchen to look for a telephone to call the police. When he did not find one, he went downstairs to the powder room in the laundry room. He explained that he suddenly “had to pee.”
- Once in the laundry room, Dr. Robb noticed the broken glass from the rear door. He abandoned his plan to urinate, and instead went through the garage and to his car, where he retrieved his cell phone and called the police.
- He and his wife did not get along. They have slept in separate bedrooms for years;
- Both he and his wife suffer from depression;
- In response to the detectives’ question as to whether his wife had taken any recent steps towards divorce, Dr. Robb evaded the question by saying she had seen a lawyer one or two years ago and many times since then.
B. Corrections to Statement
Detective Kuklentz hand wrote the statement given by Dr. Robb. Specifically, Detective Kuklentz wrote his question, read it to Dr. Robb and then recorded, in writing, Dr. Robb’s response. At the conclusion of the interview, Dr. Robb was asked to read the statement and make any corrections he felt were necessary. The corrections of interest are as follows:
Q: When did you last see Ellen alive?
A: This morning around 8:30 or 9:00 AM
Correction: Extended the time frame to 9:30 AM.
***
This morning you said you last saw your wife alive around 8:30 or 9:00 AM. What did you do after that?
Correction: Changed the question to read from 9:00 AM- 9:30 AM.
***
Q: Is the Chinatown fruit store the first place you stopped after leaving your home today?
A: Yes. I was there at about 10:15 or 10:30 AM. I was there about 20 minutes or a half hour.
Correction: Crossed out “or a half hour” and extended time to 40 minutes.
***
Q: Did you share this bedroom w/ your wife?
A: No. We sleep in different bedrooms. We have slept in different rooms for many years. We don’t get along. We have fights. We don’t see eye to eye.
Correction: Crossed out “We have fights”.
***
Q: Are you thinking clear during this interview?
A: More or less.
Correction: Added “I am still agitated.”
***
Q: Did you notice anything else unusual about your home after finding your wife dead?
A: Just the broken glass. I didn’t see anything else.
Correction: Added “I did not inspect carefully.”
***
Q: You told us of Timberland boots you own. How many pairs do you have?
A: Two or three. They are like work boots. They should be upstairs in my bedroom closet. I haven’t worn them in years maybe.
Correction: “I don’t have them anymore.”
***
Q: When you found your wife dead, how did you approach her?
A: I approached her from the direction of her feet. I leaned down and touched her face with my right hand.
Correction: Added , “I think.”
These are the only relevant corrections Dr. Robb made to his statement. (Two others concerned when he last took his sleeping medication and the cell phone number of a friend) These are significant to us in that these corrections reveal Dr. Robb’s caution concerning his alibi, his relationship with his wife, and the physical evidence found at the scene.
C. Polygraph Examination
The detectives who interviewed Dr. Robb found his demeanor and some of his statements to be suspect and, in fact, advised him of such. In an attempt to allay their suspicions, the detectives extended to Dr. Robb the opportunity to take a polygraph examination. He refused. During the conversation regarding the polygraph test, Dr. Robb repeatedly asked “what if I fail?&lrquo;, followed by “then I will be in more trouble.”
D. Verbal Statements of Dr. Robb
On Sunday, December 24, 2006 we transported Dr. Robb from a local hotel to his house so that he could retrieve clothing. Montgomery County Homicide Detective Richard Nilsen met these detectives and Dr. Robb at the house and asked if Dr. Robb could answer some questions that arose during the course of the forensic examination of his house. He agreed, and led the detectives on a walk through of the residence, showing how he entered the home, found his wife, and ultimately called the police. During the course of this walk-through detectives learned, among other things, the following:
- While in his bedroom and after he demonstrated how he placed his laptop computer and briefcase on his bed, Detective Marino asked Dr. Robb if the telephone on his nightstand next to his bed works. When Dr. Robb replied it did, Detective Marino asked why he didn’t call the police with that telephone after he put down his laptop and briefcase. Dr. Robb hesitated, looked at the phone and said “[s]ometimes at night it is disconnected” and “sometimes I unplug it when I don’t want to be disturbed”. With that, Dr. Robb crawled across his bed and plugged the power cord into the back of the phone.
- Detectives asked Dr. Robb about the lock on his bedroom door. Similar to the one on the laundry room door, it is a doorknob lock that can be locked from in the bedroom by rotating the thumb turn or from the outside the door by using a key. Dr. Robb said that although he did not remember, the door was “probably open” when he left for Penn that morning and when he returned home to find his wife’s body. When asked whether it was his practice to keep his room locked when he is not there he replied, “sometimes I lock it.” When the detectives next asked what might prompt him to lock his door he replied “maybe if I get into a fight with my wife.”
- Finally, detectives asked Dr. Robb where exactly his wife was and what she was doing when he last saw her. Although he could not be specific as to what she was doing, he said she was in the kitchen and that she was wrapping gifts. When asked for more specific details about the gifts Ellen was wrapping, Dr. Robb said Ellen had yet to wrap a gift for one of their daughter’s counselors.
The affidavit of probable cause filed by prosecutors in the homicide case being developed against University of Pennsylvania economics professor Rafael Robb. According to detectives working on the case, Robb’s wife told the couple’s 12-year-old daughter that she was going to file for divorce, and that “she was expecting to receive a lot of money from the child’s father because he kept a lot of money in banks overseas. Detectives allege that Robb lied to them about this “obvious motive” for murder, about her “recent plans to divorce him” and that she believed a divorce would entitle her to “a significant portion of his wealth.”