ROCKINGHAM COUNTY, Va. — The attorney of a man nicknamed the "shopping cart killer" filed a motion for a psychological evaluation for his client that has been accused of killing two women in Harrisonburg in 2021.
The motion was filed on Monday in Rockingham County Circuit Court for defendant Anthony Eugene Robinson. The motion request made by defense lawyer Louis Nagy is set to be considered in court by Judge Bruce D. Albertson Friday.
The Virginia court has been considering first-degree murder charges for Robinson for the incident in which he allegedly killed two women in a hotel and then dumped their naked bodies in a nearby field behind the location with a shopping cart. The woman have been identified as 54-year-old Allene Elizabeth “Beth” Redmon and 39-year-old Tonita Smith.
Robinson has been connected to the deaths of several other women who were killed across the DMV, but no charges have been brought yet in those cases: Cheyenne Brown, 29, of D.C.; 48-year-old Stephanie Harrison of California, who was found dead in Alexandria, Virginia; and 40-year-old Sonya Champ who was found dead in a shopping cart near Union Station in D.C. in 2021. In Prince George’s County, police have opened a cold case investigation into the death of another woman. Her family says she was in a relationship with Robinson back in 2018 when she died. However, police have not said he is a suspect, just that they are revisiting it.
Authorities say Robinson used dating sites and apps to meet his victims.
The prosecution has said they have video evidence showing him disposing of his alleged victims in Harrisonburg with the shopping cart. The judge also previously stated that there is significant evidence these crimes meet the bar for first-degree murder.
But, according to the motion, the legal counsel for Robinson has acquired medical records for him that show he has a long history of mental illness which dates back to at least 2014, if not earlier. This development has led counsel to believe that Robinson was suffering from the effects of that mental illness, which was not named in the motion, at the time of one or more of the alleged incidents.
Friday's hearing will weigh in on the counsel's request for a mental health expert to be appointed to the case to investigate Robinson's sanity.