HARRISONBURG, Va. (WHSV) – Anthony Robinson appeared in court for his double murder trial in Harrisonburg/Rockingham Circuit Court.
*VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED: Some details in this story can be disturbing for some people*
Backstory
On Nov. 24, 2021, the Harrisonburg Police Department found two corpses behind the Howard Johnson Motel parking lot. One victim was much more decomposed than the other, indicating a stark difference between the two’s time of death. Allene Elizabeth “Beth” Redmon and Tonita Lorice Smith were the names of the two victims.
After HPD’s arrest, other localities began to reach out to the department because they had victims who suffered very similar fates to Redmon and Smith.
The case has been pushed through the legal system for three years, with multiple delays and attempts to change the trial. Judge Bruce Albertson insisted the trial continue as scheduled. The trial was once split into two separate trials, one for first-degree murder charges and the other for aggravated murder charges. The two were combined just a few days before the trial was set to start back in Sept. 2024.
Day One: A Trial of Two Names
On Jan. 27, 2025, Robinson and his defense team faced a jury for two murder accusations in Harrisonburg. As most trials by jury start, a jury needs to be selected. This is where the first of several problems started for the trial. 92 potential jurors entered the Rockingham Circuit Court, but between the prosecution and the defense, only 14 were to be selected.
After hours of questioning, the 14 jurors were selected by Marsha Garst, Rockingham County Commonwealth’s Attorney, and Louis Nagy, Robinson’s defense lawyer. However, Robinson’s defense team was unhappy with the panel — citing a supposed violation of the 6th Amendment. Nagy’s claim stemmed from the lack of African Americans and/or people of color selected by both parties. He said a limited amount was scheduled to appear for a jury trial, and none of them were selected. Ultimately, Nagy moved for a mistrial, asking the judge to reschedule the trial amidst the lack of diversity.
Judge Albertson denied the request, attributing the random selection to the Department of Motor Vehicles records.
After a jury was selected, the two parties gave their opening statements to the jury. Garst went first and discussed the duality in Robinson’s personality.
“Meet the Real Anthony Robinson,” was Garst’s quote she used to reinforce her evidence against the defendant. During her opening statements, she discussed the difference between the Robinson who invited women to his hotel room for either companionship or sex and the Robinson who allegedly killed multiple women and transported their bodies via shopping cart.
“Those women entered the gates of Hell,” according to Garst’s opening statement.
She described the gruesome state of the victims once they were found. Investigators found multiple injuries to different parts of their bodies, sweatshirts wrapped around some of their mouths and left naked except for the socks on their feet. Robinson’s phone was also seized as part of the investigation. In the data extraction, thousands of pornographic URLs were put in evidence because the headlines resembled the two victims.
“Mature Blonde Followed and Brutalized.” This was the name of one of the sites, many with much more graphic descriptions.
Garst said victims had small amounts of drugs in their system when the bodies were found but told the jury members that it wasn’t a lethal dose.
Ultimately, Garst attributed the government’s claims of murder to Robinson’s alleged sadosexual motives.
“He liked it, so he did it again and again,” and “He kills women for sport,” were some of the claims she made to begin her side of the argument.
On the other side of the room was Robinson and his defense team. Nagy began his opening statements by asking the jury, “What really happened in room 336?” His points revolved around the need to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Robinson was the killer.
In his argument, he mentions the autopsy report’s lack of identifying a cause of death. The coroner ruled the manner of death as a homicide but had no clear cause of death. This is important to Nagy’s argument because he argued there is a difference between homicide and murder. He said the evidence presented by the prosecutors would leave more questions than answers, denying any chance to prove Robinson’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
He said there was “a ton of evidence” leading up to and after the alleged incident, but nothing could prove what happened in the middle. He called out the prosecutor’s use of inmates to prove the middle ground and said the inmates’ credibility isn’t sustainable. One of the inmates had been convicted of fraud previously.
In autopsy, reports said there was “no evidence of external or internal trauma,” according to Nagy. He said this fact directly countered some of the allegations made by Garst in her opening statements.
In the statement, he discusses the importance of looking at Robinson’s history in room 336 as a whole. He said several women left the room alive — unlike Redmon and Smith. He also said they would call Robinson weird or a creep, but they were still alive to tell that story.
“It looks bad, but it’s just suspicion,” he said. He ensured the jury recognized the difference between suspicion and without a reasonable doubt.
After both parties concluded their opening statements, Garst called upon several witnesses.
The first couple of witnesses were friends and family of the victim. They weren’t questioned much, except for reporting either one of the two missing or making contact with them before the victims died.
The courtroom changed when Detective Randall Life took the stand.
Life is a digital forensics specialist with the Harrisonburg Police Department. He had a large role in Robinson’s investigation and was a major witness to Garst’s day one story.
In his testimony, he identified both Redmon and Smith walking into room 336 of the Howard Johnson Motel alive. The video shown in the courtroom had sunshine in the background for both victims.
The next video clip showed Robinson walking a shopping cart to his room late at night. After that, the clips showed the two women leaving his room. Dead. Their bodies stuffed in a shopping cart, pushed by Robinson to a remote location.
“Sickening,” an emotional spectator said when the video played.
After Smith’s video played, an angry bystander stood up and shouted, “Man you are a straight-up B****.” Police immediately took the spectator into custody. Judge Albertson ordered the jury to exit the courtroom. Once the spectator was brought back into the courtroom, Albertson made the man say his name and gave him ten days in jail for contempt of court.
Nagy once again moved for a mistrial, but the judge denied his request. Instead, he offered the information to the jury and told them they cannot use it as evidence in the case.
Albertson then shifted his tone and told the audience that any outbursts would not be tolerated in his courtroom. He said, “Even a syllable can give you jail time.” No one else from the audience spoke up.
Once the jury reconvened, Garst continued to show graphic photos to the jury. The next set of photos detailed the state of the bodies when police found them. Parts of the body were in severe decay, with insect infestations occurring in parts of photos. The photos matched the state of the bodies described by Garst during her opening statements.
The day was coming to an end, leaving Nagy no time to cross-examine on day one.
Copyright 2025 WHSV. All rights reserved.