The trial of Anthony Eugene Robinson, the alleged “shopping cart killer,” began in Harrisonburg this week, WTOP reported. Robinson is on trial for the deaths of Beth Redmon of Harrisonburg and Tonita Smith of Charlottesville.
Robinson was arrested for the deaths of the two women shortly after their remains were found in a vacant lot in Harrisonburg on Nov. 24, 2021.
About a month later, police recovered the remains of Stephanie Harrison and Cheyanne Brown in a plastic container near a shopping cart in Fairfax County. Investigators connected the dots that the killings were likely related. Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis coined the term “the shopping cart killer” during a press conference in 2021.
Robinson is suspected in the deaths of Harrison, Brown, and Sonya Champ — whose body was found in a shopping cart in Northeast DC in September 2021. DNA evidence linked Robinson to the crime, but he has not yet been charged for those deaths.
Robinson’s weeklong trial for the deaths of Redmon and Smith began Monday at Harrisonburg’s Rockingham County Circuit Court.
Jurors were shown a video of Robinson entering a hotel room with two women on separate occasions. He left the next morning with a shopping cart covered in a sheet, according to WTOP. Investigators say this happened at the Howard Johnson Hotel in Harrisonburg, where Robinson was staying for work.
Prosecutors in the trial allege that Robinson met the women on dating apps and “killed these women to fulfill his sexual demands.”
Robinson was initially set to begin the first of two trials in September. That trial was postponed, and a judge ruled that the deaths of both women would be tried in a single case, WTOP reported in September.
Feature image courtesy Fairfax County Police Department
