TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Robinson Gets 20 Years

ADVERTISEMENT

By GARY SPROTT and SARAH HUNTLEY of The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 31, 2000

TAMPA - What would Vicki Robinson have wanted?

That question divided her survivors along visible fault lines Tuesday as Robinson's 17-year-old daughter, Valessa, was sentenced for her mother's brutal slaying.

Michelle Robinson asked that her younger sister be sent to a juvenile facility for rehabilitation, saying her mother would not have wanted Valessa locked behind prison bars.

Tom Klug agreed that his sister, Vicki, would have wanted her daughter to have a chance at rehabilitation. But Klug said he, his siblings and parents wanted Valessa imprisoned for 20 years, the maximum penalty.

"The question here today is what is fair and reasonable," he said.

Hillsborough Circuit Judge J. Rogers Padgett soon supplied his answer: 20 years in state prison.

"Any questions about that?" Padgett asked Valessa, who stood at the defense table in shackles and an orange jail uniform.

"No, sir," the teenager answered quietly.

It was her only statement during a five-hour hearing that simmered with finger-pointing and bitterness.

"My gut reaction?" Jim Englert, Vicki Robinson's boyfriend, said afterward. " Valessa got away with murder.

"But I can't change anything," Englert continued. "I've got to let it go. God's their final judge."

Valessa's father, Chuck Robinson, who was divorced from Vicki in 1994, said his daughter isn't prepared for prison.

"I hope that she can get the counseling, the guidance she needs," he said, leaning on a wooden bench as the courtroom emptied.

"I believe she can be a productive citizen," he had told Padgett earlier. "I really believe that."

Valessa must serve at least 85 percent of her sentence. She will get credit for the almost two years she has been in jail since her arrest. That means she could be freed within 15 years, when she will be 32.

The teenager was found guilty last month of third-degree murder, grand theft auto and petty theft in the June 1998 slaying. Her sentence is the lightest of the three handed down in the case.

Valessa's ex-boyfriend, Adam "Rattlesnake" Davis, was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death.

Her friend Jon Whispel pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 25 years in prison. He was the state's star witness against Robinson and Davis.

Assistant Public Defender Dee Ann Athan said she will appeal her client's conviction and sentence. If she wins a new trial, Robinson can't be convicted of an offense greater than third-degree murder nor receive a longer sentence.

Athan had asked Padgett to sentence her client as a juvenile, saying that was the only way Robinson could get needed rehabilitation. That also would have meant Robinson could have been out within four years.

Athan said afterward that she had prepared Robinson "for the worst-case scenario, which is what happened."

Prosecutors sought the maximum sentence, saying the murder was particularly heinous.

Vicki Robinson, a 49-year-old real estate agent, was stabbed to death in the kitchen of her Carrollwood home. Prosecutors said Valessa, then 15, masterminded the murder and executed it with the help of Davis and Whispel, both 19 at the time.

The teens first injected Vicki Robinson with bleach. When that didn't kill her, Davis fatally stabbed her. Valessa straddled her mother's legs during the slaying, prosecutors said.

Vicki Robinson was killed because she disapproved of Valessa's relationship with Davis, prosecutors said. In the days before her death, Vicki enrolled Valessa in a boarding school for troubled girls.

Just as they held conflicting views of the punishment Valessa deserved, family members occupied opposite sides of the courtroom.

Chuck Robinson, wearing a gold lapel pin of Lady Justice, sat with his wife, Venessa.

Michelle Robinson sat by them, watching her sister closely. From time to time, Michelle chewed at her long fingernails, her hands shaking.

"Because my mother is not here, I feel it is my duty to be her voice," she told Padgett. " Valessa loved my mom very much."

On the other side of the courtroom aisle, Vicki's brother Tom sat with his parents, Art and Donna Klug. Behind the Klugs sat Englert.

Donna Klug wore a gold guardian angel pin. In her hand, she gripped a pink rose — her daughter's favorite flower.

Tom Klug told Padgett his niece has expressed no remorse.

"She's never seemed remorseful about ... saying, "Let's kill my mom,' " he said, looking occasionally at Valessa and controlling his voice. "She's never been remorseful to us about holding her mother's legs down."

As her son recounted the gruesome manner of Vicki Robinson's death, Donna Klug began sobbing. She was still crying as she left the courthouse later.

Neither she nor her husband testified Tuesday. However, in a letter to Padgett the Klugs blamed Valessa for their loss.

" Valessa is a dangerous, defiant ... manipulative teenager who knew what she was doing," they wrote. "Vicki was denied 30 or 40 years of her life, therefore we feel Valessa should serve 30 or 40 years of her life in prison."

Their granddaughter Valessa showed emotion just once — while reading letters sent to Padgett by her mother's family. As she scanned a two-page letter written on loose-leaf paper, her face dissolved in tears.

After sentencing, Valessa was immediately fingerprinted and led from the courtroom. She now likely will be transported from the county jail to a state correctional facility for evaluation before being sent to a women's prison.

Outside the courthouse, Tom Klug said the sentencing wasn't about winning or losing.

"The jury already found that [Valessa] killed her mother. I don't know what worse sentence she could have received."

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT