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| 1993 Robinson, Trinity May 23,1993; Cutler Ridge 18 YO | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Nov 25 2006, 11:23 PM (560 Views) | |
| PorchlightUSA | Nov 25 2006, 11:23 PM Post #1 |
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http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/r/robinson_trinity.html Trinity Nichole Robinson Vital Statistics at Time of Disappearance Missing Since: May 10, 1993 from Cutler Ridge, Florida Classification: Endangered Missing Date Of Birth: December 11, 1974 Age: 18 years old Height and Weight: 5'0 - 5'1, 120 - 125 pounds Distinguishing Characteristics: Brown hair, brown or green eyes. Robinson has a burn scar below her navel and another scar near her left eyebrow. She has an olive complexion. Clothing/Jewelry Description: Denim shorts, a black t-shirt and white shoes. Medical Conditions: Robinson is hypoglycemic and is required to occasionally take glucose pills to regulate her condition. Details of Disappearance Robinson's boyfriend, Christopher Phillips, told authorities that she left their residence in Homestead, Florida to walk to work on May 10, 1993 at approximately 3:30 p.m. The couple resided on southwest 308th Street with several roommates. They had been living in the Miami, Florida area for three months on May 10. Robinson was employed at Todd's Restaurant at 197th Street and South Dixie Highway. Phillips stated that she was carrying her work uniform at the time. The manager at Todd's Restaurant told authorities that Robinson left two paychecks and mail unclaimed at the business. Phillips reported her as a missing person on May 11, one day after Robinson's disappearance. Robinson moved to Florida in 1992 with Phillips and other friends from her hometown of Burlington, North Carolina. Phillips allegedly abused Robinson at the time. Robinson's mother stated that Phillips promised her daughter they could make a substantial amount of money in the Miami area. He apparently planned to find employment in the roofing industry. Robinson's mother said that the couple often had problems and her daughter returned to North Carolina twice; once in December 1992 and again in May 1993 shortly before her disappearance. Robinson's mother said that Phillips drove to North Carolina to bring her daughter back to Florida the final time she returned to her family's home. Robinson told her mother she was in love with Phillips and always reconciled with him after the allegedly abusive incidents. Robinson's father, who resided in Oklahoma in 1993, told investigators that his daughter attempted to call him collect at approximately 1:30 a.m. on May 11, which was the time her restaurant shift would have ended for the night. Her father stated that he did not accept the charges and never spoke to Robinson, saying they had a phone conversation several days earlier. Her father also said that other family members ran up a large long distance phone bill at the time, preventing him from accepting his daughter's call. Authorities said that Robinson's father never heard his daughter's voice during the call and it is not known if she actually placed the call to Oklahoma. Robinson's mother said that her daughter called and said she was coming two or three days before her May 10 disappearance. Robinson asked her attorney in North Carolina to forward an insurance settlement check worth more than $7000 to Todd's Restaurant in Homestead. Robinson's roommates in Florida reportedly told law enforcement officials that she said she planned to return to North Carolina after the check arrived. Authorities reopened Robinson's case in 2000. Her mother provided a DNA sample to be compared with an unidentified female victim located in Florida after Robinson's disappearance, but the results did not match. Authorities located Phillips in North Carolina. He married and had three children with his wife by 2000. Phillips's wife told investigators that he abused her and he had mentioned abusing Robinson in the early 1990s. Phillips's wife requested admittance to a women's shelter the day after she initially spoke to authorities. Phillips was arrested on charges of domestic violence shortly thereafter. He maintained his innocence in the case filed by his wife and also told authorities that he was not involved in Robinson's 1993 disappearance. Investigators noted that Phillips had access to a vehicle while living in Florida with Robinson, but he allowed her to walk to work the day she vanished. Phillips claimed that he often picked Robinson up after her shift ended at Todd's Restaurant, saying the business was located in a dangerous section of Homestead. Other witnesses told authorities that Robinson often called for a ride from a pay phone located outside a nearby convenience store while residing in Florida. Robinson was previously employed in the housekeeping industry prior to her disappearance. She is a graduate of Southern Middle School and Graham High School, and she enjoys modern dance. Her case remains unsolved and no arrests have been made in connection with her case. Police initially believed she left of her own accord, but now foul play is suspected in Robinson's disappearance. In 2000, investigators re-classified it as a homicide. Investigating Agency If you have any information concerning this case, please contact: Miami-Dade Police Department 305-418-7291 http://www.wxii12.com/news/9540400/detail.html[/URL |
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| PorchlightUSA | Nov 25 2006, 11:24 PM Post #2 |
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http://z10.invisionfree.com/usedtobedoe/in...opic=6442&st=0& |
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| PorchlightUSA | Jul 1 2010, 09:02 PM Post #3 |
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Miami-Dade Police Department Homicide Division Brett Nichols 305-471-2100 -- Burlington Police Department 336-229-3500 Agency Case Number: 236373N NCIC Number: M-450917250 dna |
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| PorchlightUSA | Sep 3 2010, 09:27 PM Post #4 |
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The Miami Herald > News > Miami-Dade > Miami-Dade Breaking News Miami-Dade Breaking News Friday, 09.03.10Welcome Guest .Miami-Dade jurors return murder verdict, even without victim's body . Photos BY DAVID OVALLE dovalle@MiamiHerald.com Christopher Phillips, a drug-dealing North Carolina handyman, was found guilty of second-degree murder for the slaying of his teenage girlfriend, whose body was never found after she vanished in Homestead in 1993, jurors decided Thursday. Phillips, 37, killed Trinity Nicole Robinson, 18, who vanished before a shift at Todd's Family Restaurant. He faces up to life in prison. Jurors deliberated just over an hour. Phillips reported Robinson missing in May 1993, but then gave conflicting versions of how she disappeared. Prosecutors painted Phillips as a jealous, manipulative boyfriend who beat and abused Robinson, a diminutive teen suckered in by her love of an older man. She had told co-workers that she was planning to leave Phillips for good. He later confessed to the slaying, to a host of people in their hometown of Burlington, N.C. ``There is no body, but there is no doubt that she is dead. There is no doubt that the defendant is responsible for her death,'' prosecutor Abbe Rifkin said on the first day of Phillips' trial for second-degree murder. His attorney, Eric Matheny, had told jurors that without a body or any eyewitnesses to a slaying, prosecutors had no case against his client. ... Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/09/02/1805...l#ixzz0yWXytGj0 |
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| PorchlightUSA | Oct 14 2010, 08:16 PM Post #5 |
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Life term given in the 17-year-old murder of Trinity Robinson .Despite never having found her body, a young woman's boyfriend is sentenced to life in jail for second-degree murder. Photos BY DAVID OVALLE dovalle@MiamiHerald.com Seventeen years after his girlfriend vanished in Homestead, Christopher Phillips stood up in a Miami-Dade court Wednesday and, in a hysterical and rambling speech, cast blame on everyone but himself. The lead detective, prosecutors and witness after witness hailing from Homestead to North Carolina, he insisted, lied to doom him. To this day, Phillips swore, he has no idea where his former lover's body is. ``Your honor,'' he stammered, in his thick Southern drawl, ``I swear to you I didn't do anything.'' Circuit Judge Bertila Soto was not swayed. She sentenced Phillips to a life term for the second-degree murder of Trinity Robinson, 18, whose body still remains undiscovered. ``I think the right person is being sentenced today. I believe you are responsible for Trinity's death,'' Soto told Phillips, adding: ``There is no conspiracy.'' Wednesday's sentencing capped one of Miami-Dade's most unusual murder trials in recent memory, only the second ``no-body'' conviction in county history. Jurors convicted him in September after witness upon witness from Burlington, N.C., testified that Phillips admitted to murdering Robinson. Especially damning: his own uncle testified that Phillips confessed he strangled Robinson because she stole his cocaine. The jury deliberated a little more than an hour. ``This means everything to our family,'' Robinson's mother, Kathy Thompson, said after the sentencing. ``We spent 17 years of our lives to make sure this happened -- Trinity got her justice.'' Robinson, a naïve teen who fell under the Phillips' spell, moved to Homestead with Phillips to find work after Hurricane Andrew. Prosecutors painted Phillips, 38, as a jealous, manipulative boyfriend who consistently beat Robinson, leading to her decision to leave him. She vanished just before a waitress shift at Todd's Family Restaurant, and Phillips gave police conflicting accounts of her disappearance. During trial, Phillips attorney, Eric Matheny, claimed the state had only vague circumstantial evidence and no direct eye witnesses. He cast blame on Phillips' then-roommates, Lon Martin and Keith Iaea, who were convicted of an unrelated 1997 gruesome dismemberment case in Washington state. They denied involvement in the Robinson case, though prosecutors suspect they helped dump her body. Though her family suspected foul play even as Phillips returned to North Carolina, Robinson was listed as a missing person until Miami-Dade homicide detectives reopened the case in 2000. Phillips was arrested for her murder in 2006. Wednesday's sentencing was a somber affair for Robinson's family, which prepared for the court a DVD slide show of 1980s childhood photos of Robinson. Her younger sister, Stephenie Robinson Allred, remembered their childhood: roller skating, swimming lessons, laughing at boys. ``She was my friend. She was one of a kind. She was taken from me and this world because of the defendant,'' a teary Allred said, glaring at Phillips. ``I will never be the same person that I was because of the defendant.'' Said Robinson's aunt, Jan Cheek: ``He's not even a man. He is a mouse. He deserves no mercy. He showed no mercy for her.'' Under 1993 state law, Phillips faced up to 22 years in prison, but Judge Soto had the discretion to mete out a more severe sentence. Matheny argued for 22 years as justice for Robinson and Phillips, who had just married his second wife and was arrested just weeks after one of his sons was born. Assistant State Attorney Abbe Rifkin, who tried the case with Suzanne Von Paulus, shot back that Phillips' teary speech was the only hint of remorse he's shown during the trial. ``He's not crying for anyone but himself,'' Rifkin said. In the end, Judge Soto ruled Phillips' crime was senseless and cruel. Phillips' cousin, Paulette Norton, hollered out: ``He's innocent! I'll keep proving it until the day I die!'' Court security ushered her out. Jennifer Phillips, the defendant's second wife, sat frozen in shock and buried her face in her palms. Thompson, Robinson's mother, erupted in tears of relief. She embraced Miami-Dade homicide detective Ray Hoadley, then her surviving daughter, Allred. ``Though he got life'' in prison, Allred said, ``it will never bring back Trinity.'' http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/10/13/1872...he-17-year.html |
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| PorchlightUSA | Oct 24 2010, 02:10 PM Post #6 |
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Justice for Trinity Comments 0 Long-awaited conviction in woman's death October 23, 2010 11:29 PM Michael D. Abernethy / Times News Stephenie Robinson Allred was only 15 when her sister, Trinity Robinson, vanished without a trace in Homestead, Fla., in May 1993. Now 33, Allred’s memories of life with her older sister remain vivid: playing together, Robinson's love of animals and her jovial spirit. “You could hear her laughing all through the house. She was always laughing. She was a jokester,” Allred says. “She loved life.” Robinson was 17 when she left Burlington in December 1992 for freedom and what she and friends hoped would be a more adventurous life in southern Florida. They quickly discovered life in the Hurricane Andrew-ravaged region wasn’t as easy as they’d hoped. Within months, Robinson was making plans to return home. Then — sometime between May 9 and May 11, 1993 — she disappeared. Kathy Thompson, now 54, had begged her daughter not to go to Florida with Christopher Michael Phillips, but the girl insisted. Thompson had never trusted the young man, who talked down to her daughter and ordered her around. From the beginning, she and other family members feared the worst. In September, their suspicions were confirmed by a Miami-Dade County jury. Though no body was ever found and no physical evidence recovered by the state of Florida, Phillips was found guilty of murdering Robinson. On Oct. 13, a judge sentenced the 38-year-old — who last lived in Whitsett before he was charged in 2006 with the second-degree murder — to life in prison. “We always knew he had done it. He told lies from the start,” Thompson said Thursday. But Phillips told more than lies. During the trial, witness after witness took the stand against him. Phillips’ ex-wife, Peggy Wilson, an ex-girlfriend and even an uncle testified that Phillips admitted to killing Robinson numerous times. Wilson even testified that Phillips had a gun to her head when he’d said it. “Justice was served. It can’t bring Trinity back, but at least he can’t brag about it anymore,” Allred said. AT THE SENTENCING hearing, Phillips was described by the Miami Herald as “hysterical and rambling” as he pleaded with a judge for leniency. He told the judge that detectives and witnesses conspired to convict an innocent man. Circuit Judge Bertila Soto shot down his pleas. “I believe you are responsible for Trinity’s death … There is no conspiracy,” Soto told Phillips, the Miami newspaper reported. Abbe Rifkin, the assistant state attorney who prosecuted the case in August and September, said Wednesday that there is no way Phillips is innocent. “I proved everything to those jurors … He gave at least 13 different versions of what happened to (Robinson),” Rifkin said. She used witnesses, many of them from Alamance County, to condemn Phillips — building a case against him piece by piece and word by word. Allred testified that Phillips once hinted that he’d killed Robinson. “He came to talk to us. He’d been drinking. I asked him, ‘What happened to Trinity?’ He took a big swallow of vodka. He had this knife and pulled it out. He said, ‘I’ll take you and show you what I did to her.’” During the trial, Thompson said she was surprised how many others testified to hearing Phillips say he was involved in Robinson’s disappearance. She expected to hear things she didn’t know, but the stories “just kept coming out,” Thompson said. Rifkin is becoming known for her prowess in Florida’s courtrooms. Phillips’ case was only the second case in Miami-Dade County history to result in a murder conviction without a body. Rifkin tried the county’s first no-body murder conviction and is already preparing to try its third, involving a 22-year-old woman who disappeared from a club in 2007. BUT PHILLIPS’ FAMILY says there’s more to the story than what the jury heard. Rumors have floated for years that two of Phillips’ Homestead roommates, Lon Martin and Keith Iaea — who were convicted of a brutal 1997 murder involving dismemberment in Washington state — are partly responsible for Robinson’s murder. Prosecutors believe Martin and Iaea helped hide Robinson’s body. Phillips’ family members say investigators didn’t press the pair hard enough for information. They also question the tactics Florida detectives used to gather information and call a murder conviction on circumstantial evidence alone unfair. Christina Burch, 39, and Paulette Norton, 37 — Phillips’ sister and cousin — also believe Phillips’ defense attorney, Eric Matheny, didn’t work hard enough to prove Phillips’ innocence. “They withheld evidence. (Prosecutors) never used the good stuff because they’d made up their minds against him,” Burch said. Though Norton was one of the group that traveled to Florida with Phillips and Robinson, she was never interviewed by Matheny. She also says Miami-Dade detectives seemed not to care what she had to say: that she never witnessed any control or abuse by Phillips against Robinson and that other details in the state’s case didn’t match what she remembers. Several family members signed affidavits for the sentencing hearing that weren’t admitted into court, they said. “Why is it OK to use hearsay against someone but not for them?” Burch asked Friday. They say witnesses from Alamance County who testified against Phillips have motives to lie about him. Even family members, like Phillips’ and Burch’s uncle George Michael Smith, have been known to tell lies, Burch said. “He don’t always tell the truth. He don’t always lie,” Burch said. “But he don’t always tell the truth.” Burch sympathizes with Thompson but believes her brother is innocent. “As a mother I would do everything possible to find out what happened to my child. But at the same time they made my brother out to be something he wasn’t. He’s not a monster.” Rifkin believes the stories witnesses told under oath and “absolutely did not” have a sense they were ever not telling the truth. She got a letter from the jury foreman after the trial, saying “how real” the witnesses all seemed. “The uncle did not want to testify. He made that very clear in court. He was subpoenaed to be there. But he said, ‘I'm not going to lie.’” Phillips’ family members didn’t attend the trial but did attend the Oct. 13 sentencing. AFTER NEARLY TWO decades of waiting and praying, Thompson and Allred say their faith is restored in law enforcement and the judicial system. The case of Robinson’s disappearance was cold for years when Miami-Dade Detective Ray Hoadley picked it up in 2000. They say he immediately apologized for the delay in investigation and said that Florida police made mistakes in the initial investigation. “Before 2000, I had learned to hate Florida,” Thompson said. “We never gave up.” “I just want to say thanks to Detective Hoadley for everything he did. He’s a great man for what he did,” Allred said. After so many years focusing on the pain of loss and injustice, both said they are finally ready to begin moving on. “We feel better. We smile a lot more now,” Thompson said. Allred named her daughter after Robinson as “a way to let my sister be a part of her life.” Thompson and Allred are planning a memorial service in December, to coincide with what would have been Robinson’s 36th birthday Dec. 11. Hoadley is expected to attend. http://www.thetimesnews.com/news/robinson-...-stephenie.html |
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