Rockingham County Commonwealth’s Attorney Marsha Garst showed Hart, Robinson’s defense attorney Louis Nagy and Harrisonburg Police detective Brooke Wetherell videos of Redmon and Smith walking into Robinson’s room at the Howard Johnson motel in Harrisonburg. She also showed video of Robinson obtaining a shopping cart and dragging the carts out of the room, with items that appeared to be bodies, wrapped in bed sheets.
Robinson was living in the motel room while employed at Pilgrim’s Pride in Timberville, Wetherell said.
Wetherell testified that police found both bodies about 15 feet apart in a field at the corner of Linda Lane and Country Club Road, behind the motel.
Garst also showed evidence of an autopsy report from both women, which said that a plastic bag was found around each woman’s head, and their arms tied behind their back with a “chunky black yarn,” and Wetherell said Robinson made a purchase at Walmart for the material. The medical examiner ruled the deaths were due to homicidal violence and possibly suffocation.
The Harrisonburg Police Department (HPD) announced it was searching for Redmon on Nov. 10 after family and friends had not seen her since around Oct. 24. The Charlottesville Police Department (CPD) said Smith had been reported missing on Nov. 19.
Wetherell testified that CPD notified HPD that Smith’s cellphone was pinging at Robinson’s hotel room. Police arrested Robinson Nov. 23.
When questioned by HPD, Robinson said both women overdosed on “a white pill” while he was sleeping, Wetherell said. He disposed of their bodies in the field because he didn’t know what to do, she said.
Nagy asked Hart to lower Robinson’s first-degree murder charge in connection with Redmon to second-degree homicide, and said the killings were not premeditated. He noted surveillance video of another woman entering and exiting Robinson’s room unscathed.
Hart said there was “strong circumstantial evidence” that Robinson had plans to kill the women and found probable cause on all four counts he faces.
The case goes before a grand jury Sept. 19.
HARRISONBURG — Judge John G. Hart on Monday ruled that there is probable cause to charge Anthony Eugene Robinson, dubbed by law enforcement as the “shopping cart killer,” with first-degree
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