HARRISONBURG, Va. (WHSV) – Anthony Robinson is set to face a Rockingham jury on Monday after years of court hearings and investigations.

On Nov. 24, 2021, the Harrisonburg Police Department found two people dead — Beth Redmon and Tonita Smith — on a vacant lot across the street from Lowe’s and behind the Howard Johnson hotel parking lot. Once HPD reported the crime, officials from different localities contacted the department because they had cases similar to the one HPD had. This was the birth of the “Shopping Cart Killer” nickname. Investigators coined the name “Shopping Cart Killer” because the bodies of the victims were dumped off in shopping carts after they were killed.

In police reports, Robinson was the last person seen with both victims, but the victims were not killed on the same night. According to court records, the victims’ deaths were around a month apart. One body was found much more decomposed than the other.

In those same police reports, Robinson was allegedly the last person to be seen with the victims after security footage showed the women entering Robinson’s rented-out room at the Howard Johnson hotel in Harrisonburg. HPD said Robinson would allegedly lure his victims through the “Plenty of Fish” dating app — a mobile application where single people can meet other singles.

After Robinson was arrested, police probed his phone as part of the investigation. Records indicate thousands of pornographic site URLs were in Robinson’s history. These URLs and his search history pattern were entered as evidence because the titles of the videos described women who resembled the Harrisonburg victims.

In 2024, Robinson’s defense team — Louis Nagy and Scott Hanson — were informed that the psychological test ordered for Robinson said he was not eligible for the insanity plea.

The trial was originally split between his murder charges and his aggravated murder charges. However, days before the first trial was supposed to begin in September 2024, the defense and prosecutors agreed to unite the trials into one longer trial.

WHSV will be in the courtroom bringing updates every day while the trial goes on.

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