A shopping cart draped in a white sheet was rolled into the courtroom Tuesday in Harrisonburg, Virginia, in the second day of trial for Anthony Eugene Robinson, who police dubbed the 鈥渟hopping cart killer鈥� linked to four deaths in 2021.
Jurors on Monday watched videos showing Robinson entering a Virginia hotel room with two women on separate occasions, and leaving the next morning with a shopping cart covered in a sheet.
Investigators said it happened in Room 336 of the Howard Johnson Hotel in Harrisonburg 鈥� first in October 2021 with Beth Redmon, and then again the following month with Tonita Smith. Redmon’s and Smith’s bodies were found on a nearby hillside.
In opening statements of a weeklong trial at Rockingham County Circuit Court, prosecutor Marsha Garst told jurors Robinson “killed these women to fulfill his sexual demands.” Robinson had met the women on dating apps, according to Garst.
Garst also told jurors they would see evidence that linked Robinson to the Fairfax County death of Cheyenne Brown and the death of Sonya Champ in D.C. Robinson has not been charged in connection with Brown’s or Champ’s deaths.
In her opening statement, Garst said jurors would see a video of Robinson pushing a shopping cart with Champ’s body in it near Union Station in September 2021, and that his DNA was found on her breast, thigh and the shopping cart.
Garst said jurors would learn that Brown and Robinson agreed to meet at the Minnesota Avenue Metro stop. An employee at the Moon Inn Hotel in Alexandria will present receipts that show the two were in Room 12 before her body was found in a plastic container near the hotel.
Shortly after Robinson was named the “shopping cart killer” by Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis during a Dec. 17, 2021, news conference, police also suspected Robinson in the death of Stephanie Harrison, who was also found near the Moon Inn Hotel. However, Garst made no mention of Harrison during the first day of Robinson’s Rockingham County trial.
Tuesday, with Harrisonburg Master Patrol Officer Steven Burrows, the lead crime scene technician on the stand, several pieces of evidence were shown to the jury, including a shopping cart recovered by police near the hillside where Redmon and Smith鈥檚 bodies were found.
During cross-examination, defense attorney Louis Nagy elicited from Burrows that a Virginia Department of Forensic Sciences report based on swabs taken from the shopping cart found no evidence of Robinson鈥檚, Redmon鈥檚 or Smith鈥檚 DNA on the cart.
鈥漇o, you aren鈥檛 able to say this cart isn鈥檛 some random cart you found,鈥� asked Nagy.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 correct,鈥� Burrows replied.
What happened in Room 336?
Robinson was staying in Room 336 of the Howard Johnson Hotel as part of his compensation for working in a nearby chicken processing plant, according to a hotel front desk employee.
With prosecution witness Detective Randall Life, of the Harrisonburg Police Department, on the stand, Garst showed jurors hotel security video clips of each woman entering the room with Robinson. The next day, he would retrieve an empty shopping cart, bring it back to the room, load a body-sized item into the cart, wrapped in sheets and wheel it toward the tree line, near the back of the hotel.
As the jury watched the video of what appeared to be Smith being wheeled out of the hotel room, a family member stood and cursed Robinson. As sheriff’s deputies immediately surrounded the man and moved him into the hallway, Circuit Court Judge Bruce Albertson said, “Take him into custody now.”
The jury was moved out of the courtroom shortly after the disturbance.
Deputies escorted the man who caused the disruption back into the courtroom to face the judge. The man identified himself as Dean Smith, a brother of Tonita Smith.
Albertson immediately sentenced him to 10 days in jail for contempt of court and ordered that he not return to the courthouse during the trial.
The judge admonished those in the courtroom, “If you can鈥檛 handle being here, you shouldn鈥檛 be here. Family members think they鈥檙e helping, but it鈥檚 moral grandstanding. A syllable can get you 10 days.”
Garst apologized to the judge for the outburst, saying Dean Smith was not on her witness list, and she would reinforce the importance of courtroom decorum with prosecution witnesses and family members.
Defense attorney Nagy moved for a mistrial, saying the outburst “infers straight away that my client did something wrong,” which the jurors would be unable to wipe from their minds.
Instead, Albertson issued a limiting instruction, telling jurors, “I gave him 10 days. The maximum I can give him. I’m not going to tolerate this again. You are not to consider the outburst, or think of its relevant to guilt or innocence.”
During his opening statement, and throughout his cross-examination of prosecution witnesses, Nagy asked, “What happened in Room 336.”
He said prosecutors are not able to present evidence of what happened during the period the women were killed.
“To convict a first-degree premeditated murder, you have to be confident of what happened in Room 336,” Nagy said.
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