Report: Judge postpones trial of accused shopping cart murderer

HARRISONBURG, VA — A judge this week adjourned the murder trial of Anthony Eugene Robinson, the suspected “shopping cart killer” linked to the deaths of five women in Virginia and Washington, DC.

Robinson was scheduled to go on trial this month after being charged with first-degree murder in the death of 39-year-old Tonita Smith of Charlottesville. He was scheduled to face a similar trial next year in the death of 54-year-old Beth Redmon of Harrisonburg.

According to a WTOP report, Rockingham County District Attorney Marsha Garst has filed a motion to postpone the trial in Smith's death until January and to hold it concurrently with the previously scheduled trial in Redmon's death.

On Thursday, Judge Bruce Albertson ordered a delay in Robinson's first trial and ruled that Smith and Redmon's deaths would be tried as a single case, WTOP reported. The trial is scheduled to begin on Jan. 27.

The move came a week after defense attorneys learned that DNA evidence linked Robinson to the 2021 death of 40-year-old Sonya Champ of Northwest Washington, D.C. No charges have been filed against Robinson in the case.

Defense attorneys had argued that the judge should exclude the DNA evidence because they only learned about it 18 days before Robinson's first trial began, according to WTOP. By law, defense attorneys must receive the evidence at least 21 days before trial.

Robinson has also been linked to two other deaths after Fairfax County police found two badly decomposed bodies in a large plastic container near a shopping cart in the Alexandria area on December 15, 2021.

Police identified the victims as Cheyenne Brown, 29, of DC, and Stephanie Harrison, 48, of Redding, Calif. Robinson has not been charged in their deaths.

The police assume that the women were victims of the “shopping cart murderer”, who used shopping carts to transport the bodies of murder victims to remote areas and then dispose of them there.

The Washington Post also reported that police are reinvestigating the 2018 death of a Maryland woman Robinson was engaged to. The woman may be Robinson's sixth victim, according to reports.

Skye Allen, 30, died on Valentine's Day 2018 while she and Robinson, whom she planned to marry, were living with Allen's mother in Glenarden, the Washington Post reported.

Stacey Allen told Prince George's County police she found her daughter barely breathing in the bedroom the younger Allen shared with Robinson. Skye Allen died a short time later at a nearby hospital.

The cause of death was listed as “fatal cardiac arrhythmia,” according to a copy of her death certificate obtained by The Post.