shopping cart killer gets two consecutive life sentences for murders

Prosecutors finally locked down the Harrisonburg case with two consecutive life sentences, plus 10 years and about $205,000 in fines, for Anthony Eugene Robinson. The sentence closes the courtroom chapter on the murders of Tonita Smith and Allene “Beth” Redmon, but it does not answer the larger question hanging over the investigation: how many victims may still be tied to Robinson’s pattern.

Rockingham County Circuit Court imposed the punishment on May 22, 2026, after a Rockingham County jury found Robinson guilty in January 2025 of two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of aggravated murder, and two counts of concealing a dead body. The sentence came after a delay and after Robinson’s attorney filed a motion to set aside the verdict, keeping the case active long after the guilty finding.

The evidence that made Robinson known as the shopping cart killer remained central. Jurors saw surveillance video of Robinson entering Room 336 of the Howard Johnson Hotel in Harrisonburg in October 2021 and later leaving with a shopping cart covered by a sheet. Prosecutors said Robinson met women on dating apps, lured them to a motel room, and then killed them, describing the killings as a repeated pattern rather than a one-off crime. Smith, 39, and Redmon, 54, were found in a vacant lot in November 2021 and had died from trauma to the body. Investigators believed they died at different times, a detail that suggested the violence unfolded over more than one episode.

The case has long widened beyond Harrisonburg. Police first linked Robinson to at least four killings in December 2021, and Fairfax County police chief Kevin Davis said Robinson had a “remarkable absence” of criminal history, a detail that sharpened fears that the violence had been hidden in plain sight. Authorities also say Robinson is wanted in connection with the death of Sonya Champ in Washington, D.C. Earlier reporting tied Champ’s body to a shopping cart near Union Station, and investigators have also suspected two additional Fairfax County deaths, though no charges have been filed in those cases.

Victim-impact testimony added fresh weight to the sentencing. Marsha Garst read a letter from Smith’s 12-year-old daughter, while Smith’s father and Redmon’s daughter also addressed the court. Several Rockingham County sheriff’s deputies testified about physical and verbal altercations they said they had with Robinson while he was incarcerated, underscoring how the case continues to reverberate inside jail and outside it. The sentence is final for Smith and Redmon, but the broader trail around Robinson still is not.