Editing John Edward Robinson (section)

==Arrest and conviction==
Over time, Robinson became increasingly careless, and his ability to avoid detection declined. By 1999, he had attracted the attention of authorities in Kansas and Missouri as his name frequently came up in missing person investigations. He was arrested in June 2000 at his farm near [[La Cygne, Kansas]], after a woman filed a [[sexual battery]] complaint against him and another charged him with stealing her [[sex toy]]s.<ref name="ccf"/> The theft charge finally gave investigators the [[probable cause]] they needed to obtain [[search warrant]]s. 

On the farm, a task force found the decaying bodies of two women, later identified as Lewicka and Trouten, in two {{convert |85|lb|adj=on}} chemical drums.<ref name="trutv" />{{rp|9}} Across the state line in Missouri, investigators searched a storage facility where Robinson rented two garages. They found three similar chemical drums containing corpses subsequently identified as Bonner, Faith, and Faith's daughter. All five women were killed in the same way, by one or more blows to the head with a blunt instrument.<ref name="trutv" />{{rp|9}}

In 2002, Robinson stood trial in Kansas for the murders of Trouten, Lewicka, and Stasi along with multiple lesser charges. After the longest criminal trial in Kansas history,<ref name = "KCS">[http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/crime/article43427508.html "Death sentence is upheld for serial killer John E. Robinson Sr."]. ''The Kansas City Star'' (November 6, 2015), retrieved March 13, 2017.</ref> he was convicted on all counts. Robinson received 2 [[Capital punishment in Kansas|death sentences]] for the murders of Trouten and Lewicka, and [[life imprisonment]] for Stasi's murder because she was killed before Kansas reinstated the death penalty. He received a 5-to-20-year prison sentence for interfering with the parental custody of Stasi's baby, 20 years for [[kidnapping]] Trouten, and seven months for [[theft]].<ref name="trutv" />{{rp|9}}

After his Kansas convictions, Robinson faced murder charges in Missouri based on the evidence discovered in that state. Missouri aggressively pursued capital punishment convictions, so Robinson's attorneys wanted to avoid a trial there.<ref name = "KCS"/> [[Chris Koster]], the Missouri prosecutor, insisted as a condition of any [[plea bargain]] that Robinson lead authorities to the bodies of Stasi, Godfrey, and Clampitt. Robinson, who has never cooperated with investigators, refused. However, Koster faced pressure to make a deal because his case was not technically airtight⁠. Among other issues, there was no unequivocal evidence that any of the murders had been committed within his jurisdiction. Robinson, on the other hand, faced pressure to plead guilty to avoid an almost certain death sentence in Missouri, and failing that, yet another capital murder trial back in Kansas.<ref name="crimezzz">{{cite web| website = crimezzz.net |url= http://www.crimezzz.net/serialkiller_news/R/ROBINSON_john_edward_sr.php |title= ROBINSON John Edward sr. | date = |access-date= September 30, 2020 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080516195225/http://www.crimezzz.net/serialkiller_news/R/ROBINSON_john_edward_sr.php |archive-date=May 16, 2008 | publisher = }}</ref>

When it became clear that the women's remains would never be found without Robinson's cooperation, a compromise was reached. In a carefully scripted plea in October 2003, Robinson acknowledged that Koster had enough evidence to convict him of capital murder for the deaths of Godfrey, Clampitt, Bonner, and the Faiths. Though his statement was technically a [[guilty plea]] and was accepted as such by the Missouri court, observers remarked that it was notably devoid of any remorse or specific acceptance of responsibility.<ref name= "trutv" />{{rp|15}} Robinson received a [[Life sentence without parole|life sentence without possibility of parole]] for each of the five murders.<ref name="crimezzz"/>

In November 2015, the [[Kansas Supreme Court]] vacated the Trouten and Stasi murder convictions on technicalities, but upheld the Lewicka conviction and its accompanying death sentence.<ref>{{cite court |litigants=State v. Robinson |vol=363 |reporter=P.3d |opinion=875 |court=[[Kansas Supreme Court|Kan.]] |date=2015-11-06 |url= https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/3152697/state-v-robinson/}}</ref> The ruling marked the first time Kansas's highest court has upheld a death sentence since the reinstatement of capital punishment there in 1994. Robinson currently remains on [[death row]] at the [[El Dorado Correctional Facility]] in Kansas.<ref name = "KCS"/>