Robinson murder trial to proceed in Missouri

HARRISONVILLE, Mo. -- Even though a Kansas jury has already recommended that John E. Robinson Sr. be executed, justice demands that he be tried for capital murder in Missouri as well, says the prosecutor who will try the case.

Cass County prosecutor Chris Koster will get no argument from survivors of the three people whose bodies Robinson is accused of storing in barrels in Missouri.

"It's a matter of principle," said Dr. William Bonner, a physician whose former wife was among Robinson's alleged victims.

Although separated by the state line, the two states' cases against Robinson, 58, of Olathe, Kan., have key aspects in common.

The victims -- three in Kansas, three in Missouri -- were all female. And while one of the victims has not been seen since she disappeared in 1985, the bodies of the other five were all found just two days apart in June 2000 -- two in barrels on property Robinson owned in Kansas, three in barrels placed in storage lockers across the state line in Raymore, Mo.