Anthony Robinson, dubbed the “shopping cart killer” by police, is on trial in Virginia for the slayings of two women, Beth Redmon, 54, and Tonia Smith, 39, in 2021. Prosecutors say the 31-year-old met the women on social media dating apps and took them to his hotel room, where he killed them to fulfill his sexual demands. Jurors were shown a video that allegedly shows Robinson leaving his hotel room with a body on October 17, 2021, and then returning to the room with a wheelbarrow containing the body the next morning. Robinson is also suspected of being linked to the deaths of two other women in Fairfax County and one in Washington, D.C., although he is not on trial for those murders.
The women’s bodies were found naked and wrapped in sweatshirts with multiple injuries to different parts of their bodies. Investigators also found thousands of pornographic URLs on Robinson’s phone, including ones with headlines similar to the names of the victims. Robinson’s defense team is challenging the evidence, arguing that it only raises questions about what happened in Room 336 and that the prosecutor’s reliance on inmates’ testimony is not credible. The defense is also disputing the lack of a clear cause of death in the autopsy report.
Prosecutors say the case is one of brutal murder and that Robinson “killed these women for sport.” The trial is ongoing in Rockingham County Circuit Court.