Ex-Penn prof, wife-killer’s parole bid slapped down

The former University of Pennsylvania professor who confessed to murdering his wife in a fit of rage had his attempt at parole denied on Monday.

Rafael Robb, who was convicted of murdering his wife Ellen in 2006, lost his chance at leaving prison before the end of his 10-year sentence when the Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole denied his request Monday.

Robb’s earliest possible release date is in 2017, said Montgomery County DA Kevin Steele.

“The District Attorney’s Office is dedicated to achieving justice and protecting the safety of our community,” Steele said in a statement. “Justice was served by declining this inmate’s request for an early release and keeping Rafael Robb behind bars until 2017.”

After Robb is released, he will be on supervised probation for another 10 years, according to Steele.

On Dec. 22, 2006, Robb, a former professor of economics, beat his wife Ellen Gregory Robb, 49, to death using a metal chin-up bar inside their King of Prussia home as she was wrapping Christmas presents.

Robb murdered her during an argument over the couple’s future. Ellen was reportedly planning to leave Robb that day and take their 12-year-old daughter Olivia to Boston to live with her family.

Robb attempted to cover up the murder like it occurred in the course of a burglary before admitting his guilt and pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter charges in 2007. In 2008 was sentenced to five to 10 years.

“Rafael Robb got what he deserved once again,” said attorney Bob Mongeluzzi, who previously won $124.4 million in damages from Robb in a civil lawsuit on behalf of the Robbs’ daughter, in a statement. “We demonstrated at his civil trial and then before the parole board that he is a cold-blooded killer who has shown no remorse for his crimes and deserves no mercy.”

Mongeluzzi is still identifying and seizing Robb’s assets to pay off the civil judgement, he said.

A previous attempt by Robb at early release was denied in 2013.

In January, a judge overruled his attempt to recover $3 million in assets, which included his IRA account and his pension from UPenn, worth more than $2 million.