Sep 15, 2002
Trial Set to Begin for Murder Suspect Accused of Stashing Victims' Bodies in Barrels
By John Milburn
Associated Press Writer
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) - The first two bodies were found crammed inside yellow metal barrels in a field in rural Kansas. Days later, three more missing women were found dead in 55-gallon drums at a storage locker 30 miles away in Missouri. Authorities say John E. Robinson Sr. - who owned the field and rented the locker - had trolled the Internet for sex under the name "slavemaster" and is responsible for both Kansas murders as well as four other killings, sexual assaults and the fraudulent adoption of the infant daughter of one of his victims.
That infant, now a teenager, was raised by Robinson's brother, who authorities say thought the adoption was legitimate.
On Monday, jury selections begins in Robinson's Kansas trial, and prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
Robinson, 58, is charged there with the deaths of Suzette Trouten and Izabela Lewicka, whose decomposing bodies were found in the field in 2000, and with the killing of the adopted child's mother, Lisa Stasi, whose body was never found.
Residents of the mobile home park where Robinson lived at the time of his arrest said they believed he was a good family man who enjoyed spending time with his grandchildren. He had been married for 37 years.
But prosecutors say Robinson was a con artist who lured women with promises of a good job and world travel, and who solicited sadomasochistic encounters in Internet chat rooms under the name, "slavemaster."
Two women who met Robinson at separate hotels later claimed they were sexually assaulted.
Robinson had forced some of his victims to write letters to family members telling them all was well, according to the prosecution's case. The correspondence eventually stopped, and the women disappeared.
Johnson County authorities began investigating after Trouten's parents said they hadn't heard from their daughter. They now believe the 28-year-old was killed in 2000.
In March of that year, investigators started following Robinson.
A search of his rural property turned up the barrels and, in them, the bodies of Trouten and Lewicka, 22.
Authorities believe Lewicka had been dead since 1999.
Stasi, 19, has been missing since 1985.
Prosecutors believe Robinson convinced Stasi he was involved in an organization that helped young mothers. They say Robinson's brother, believing the adoption was legitimate, paid him $5,500 to cover adoption expenses for Stasi's infant daughter.
A gag order on the defense and prosecution attorneys in the case prevents them from making further comments outside the trial.
In Missouri, Robinson is charged with the deaths of Sheila Faith, 45, and her daughter, Debbie, 16, who were last seen in the summer of 1994 after moving to the area from Colorado, and Beverly Bonner, 49, formerly of Cameron, Mo., missing since 1994.
He faces the death penalty there as well.
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On the Net:
Kansas Judicial System: http://www.kscourts.org
