OLATHE, Kansas — Accused Kansas serial killer John E. Robinson Sr. is a "sinister" man who for years had lured women to their deaths and had gone to great lengths to conceal his crimes, a prosecutor said in closing arguments at Robinson's capital murder trial Monday.

"There is one common thread between all of these women and that one common thread is John Robinson," Prosecutor Paul Morrison told a courtroom filled to capacity, including the relatives of several victims and Robinson's wife and two daughters. "When we're done, we will prove this case not only beyond a reasonable doubt, but beyond any doubt."

Defense attorney Sean O'Brien, however, insisted that there were many unanswered questions in the case and that the nature of Robinson's relationships with the women were so different and occurred so far apart in time that they couldn't be part of a common scheme or course of conduct. In order to convict Robinson of capital murder, the jury must decide that the killings were part of a common plan.

"I urge you to take the high road," O'Brien said, after quoting from Robert Frost's famous poem, "The Road Not Taken." "We ask only for a verdict that is true and just."

Robinson, 58, is on trial for two counts of capital murder in the deaths of Suzette Trouten and Izabela Lewicka, whose bodies were found in June 2000 on rural property he owned. He is also accused of the 1985 first-degree murder of Lisa Stasi, whose body has never been found, and with arranging for his brother and sister-in-law to fraudulently adopt Stasi's 4-month-old baby. And finally, he is charged with aggravated kidnapping involving Trouten and theft involving a Texas woman who claims he took $700 worth of sex toys.

Once this trial is over, Robinson will be tried for the murders of three more women whose bodies were found in his Missouri storage locker.

After hearing two hours of closing arguments Monday, a jury of six men and six women began deliberating Robinson's fate. By 6 p.m. ET, jurors hadn't reached a verdict and but had taken a quick break to eat a chicken dinner. They planned to work until 8 p.m. ET until retiring to their hotel rooms for the evening. They will be sequestered for the duration of the deliberations.

The case of Robinson, a married father of four, made national headlines two years ago with the gruesome discovery of the womens' bodies and allegations that Robinson was interested in sex and bondage and lured women via the Internet with the name 'Slavemaster.'

The Prosecution's Case

Morrison, the prosecutor, told jurors during his closing arguments that Robinson had lured Suzette Trouten from Michigan not only to take part in a sex and bondage relationship but with the promise of a $60,000 job and world travel.

"Do you think she would have willingly come down to Lenexa, Kansas, to be murdered?" he asked. "The defendant sold her a bill of goods, like he's sold so many others a bill of goods."

He described how, in one e-mail, Trouten had fantasized about being blindfolded and taken to some rural area to service her master. "Perhaps that's why she was blindfolded, perhaps that's why she was nude" when her body was found in the barrel, Morrison said.

To Robinson, Morrison said, Trouten was valueless. Referring to the 39-minute videotape of the two having bondage sex, Morrison said the words were almost as disturbing as the images on the screen. "He thought he owned her. But it got old. A girl like that can't hold his attention very long."

Trouten, he said, wanted a 24/7 relationship and that was pretty hard when "you have to play Grandpa and loving husband in the evenings," Morrison said. "You can't do both at the same time." So what did the defendant do? He asked. "He put her body in a barrel like a piece of valueless trash."

On March 1, 2000, the day Trouten was allegedly murdered, Robinson was a very busy man, Morrison said. At 11:43 a.m., someone placed a call from his trailer in the country to the front office of Santa Barbara Estates, the mobile home community his wife managed. "I submit to you that that person who called was the defendant," Morrison said.

At 2:13 p.m., Morrison said, an agitated Robinson dropped by the Ridgeview Animal Hospital and picked up Trouten's Pekinese dogs, who had been boarding their while their owner stayed at the Guesthouse Suites in the Kansas City suburb of Lenexa.

Eleven minutes later, he said, the defendant paid a visit to one of his storage lockers in Olathe. "Was he getting a dog carrier?" Morrison asked. "Five minutes later, just up the road, these dogs are dropped off and an animal control officer is called." Then shortly after 3 p.m., Morrison said, Robinson is caught on hotel videotape turning in Trouten's room key and loading up her belongings into his truck. "[Suzette Trouten] is not in that picture because she's dead," Morrison said.

Robinson went to elaborate means to conceal Trouten's death, Morrison said, recruiting two different women to mail letters to her relatives from Mexico and California. "People are on his back. The pressure is on. Those letters gotta go out," Morrison said.

Moving on to Lewicka, the prosecutor then described how the Purdue University arts student had moved to Kansas City not only because Robinson was training her to become a dominatrix but because he had offered her a job. "It was the same old story, the same old deception," Morrison said. "The girl comes down hereand he strings her along for two years. She's telling people she's married to him. He's telling people they're married."

But in August 1999, Morrison said, an old lover of Robinson's comes to town at the same time that Lewicka disappears. Robinson moves the woman, a Canadian named Barbara Sandre, into an apartment and brings over furniture, bedding, books and a fiery impressionistic painting. "Lewicka died so his new girlfriend could have furniture," Morrison said.

The prosecutor said he also believes that Robinson killed Lewicka in the apartment he had rented for her, noting that hundreds of pin-sized spots of her blood was sprayed on the bedroom wall. Noting that Lewicka's body was clothed in a nightshirt and covered by a pillow in the barrel, Morrison said, "It was as if she were sleeping in the bedroom when she was killed."

Finally, Morrison shifted back in time to 1985, describing how Robinson was under pressure to find a baby for his brother and sister-in-law to adopt. He said the defendant contacted social service agencies looking for white girls with babies, preferably those who didn't have strong family ties. "Do you think it's because no one will be looking for them?" he asks.

Lisa Stasi and her baby met that description, Morrison said. Her sister-in-law Kathy Klinginsmith said that Robinson came to collect Stasi and her baby from her house on Jan. 9, 1985, he said. Because there was a snowstorm, he said, Stasi called Klinginsmith when she got back to her room at the Rodeway Inn to let her know she had arrived safely. She called her mother-in-law later that afternoon and she was hysterical. "They want me to sign papers," Morrison quoted her as saying. "They're coming to take my baby."

"That's the only evidence of anybody else being remotely involved in these crimes," Morrison thundered.

The next day, he said, Robinson's brother and sister-in-law showed up to adopt their baby. Morrison showed one of the photos they took that day to the jurors. "There he is, grinning like a Cheshire cat, within hours of Lisa Stasi having that baby ripped from her arms," Morrison said. "It's the same old storydifferent year."

The Defense

O'Brien, Robinson's lawyer, argued that the state's case is based entirely on circumstantial evidence.

In order to prove capital murder, O'Brien said, the jury must be convinced that Trouten and Lewicka's deaths were part of a common scheme or course of conduct involving the deaths of all six women, including the three whose bodies were found in barrels the Missouri locker.

But, he explained that the time frame and the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of the women were very differentand didn't show that the crimes were committed as part of a common plan or course of conduct. "There are important differences," he said.

O'Brien talked about how Stasi and Trouten "were kind of like bookendsthe first and last in a series of people who had died." He said that it was difficult to imagine how two women 15 years apart could be part of a common plan or course of conduct. "These two cases are remote in time," he said.

He also noted that Stasi's body had never been found and that it was possible that she was still alive. "What if, some day in the future, we find Lisa Stasi or Lisa Stasi's remains and what if the circumstances make us look at this in a whole new light?" he said.

He noted that Robinson's relationship with Trouten involved bondage and sex, yet his relationship to Stasi involved nothing of the kind. He noted that there was alleged financial motive with Stasi and the three women found in the Missouri storage locker, but no such financial motive with Trouten and Lewicka. "[These cases] are separated by so much time and are so different, it's difficult to say that they were part of a common scheme or course of conduct," O'Brien said.

He also argued that Robinson had a much deeper, longer relationship with Lewicka than he had had with Trouten or Stasi. Unlike the other women, he added, the judge's instructions allowed for the jury to find Robinson guilty of second-degree murder for Lewicka. "There were no letters and no steps taken in advance with respect to her disappearance that reflect forethought," he said.

The defense attorney also talked about how it was difficult to know the facts of the case because so many of the players had fantasy lives that involved bondage, sex and role-playing. As an example, he said, Robinson had a two-year affair with Lewicka and that, in her presence, he told others she was his wife, his niece and his daughter. "She was present and went along with each and every one of those," he said. "It was part of their fantasy."

O'Brien also said that Robinson's admitted relationship with all of these women does not mean he killed them. "He's directly connected to these women but he's not connected to the violence," he said. He added that Robinson's wife and brother, the two people who were closest to him, had expressed shock upon learning that he'd been arrested. "I thought I was going to pass out," he quoted Nancy as testifying.

O'Brien also said that the physical evidence raised a lot of unanswered questions and suggested that more than one person committed the crimes. He said that the barrels were too heavy to be lifted by one person. He cited the fingerprint on a roll of duct tape, which contained a smudge of Lewicka's blood, that did not belong to Robinson. And he said that there was a palm print on the plastic wrapping two of the barrels in the Missouri locker that also did not belong to him. "Maybe in 10, 15 years, we'll find out who [those fingerprints] belong to and it will make us look at this case in a very different light," he said.

Prosecution's Rebuttal

After hearing from O'Brien, Morrison came back to deliver his final comments. "Before we spend a lot of time talking about the fingerprint on the duct tape or why there were no letters from Izabela, let's think about the fact that those barrels with those bodies are on his farm," he thundered. "The defense is saying, 'Look at all the questions.' Over 17 years, that's the best that they can come up with? I think you'll find that there are very few unanswered questions. The evidence in this case is overwhelming."

Morrison acknowledged that there was an unidentifiable fingerprint on the duct tape, but said it was possible that it belonged to Lewicka herself. "We don't have Izabela's fingerprints because her body was too decomposed," he said. "It's highly likely that that print was Izabela Lewicka's."

The prosecutor also attacked the defense's suggestion that Lisa Stasi might have abandoned her baby. "I think we all know she wouldn't just walk away from her baby," Morrison said. "O'Brien says, 'How do we know that in a couple of years that she's not going to walk in here. Do you really think that's going to happenor do you think she's dead?"

Then Morrison began to talk about the common threads between the murders. All of these women, he said, were looking for something: jobs, travel, sexual relationships and security. Robinson took advantage of that, luring and exploiting them. From Stasi, Morrison said, he wanted her baby and his brother's money. From the three women in the Missouri storage locker, he wanted money. And from Trouten and Lewicka, he wanted sex.

All five of the women whose bodies were found in barrels, he said, died the same way, from powerful blows to the head. They were hidden the same way, in barrels. The fact that Stasi's body was never found, Morrison said, was the "ultimately concealment." And in all the cases, he said, the defendant sent letters and emails purportedly from the victims to allay the concerns of family and friends.

"The victims are too numerous to mention," Morrison said. "The ripple effects are far and wide. The misery is beyond human comprehension. Now it's up to you to decide if you want to hold the defendant accountable for all of his actions all of these years. I hope that you do."

A former correspondent for Newsweek and People Weekly, Sue Miller Wiltz is currently writing a book about Robinson for Pinnacle Books. She is covering the trial for Courttv.com.