Man convicted of murdering women and stuffing bodies in barrels

Tuesday, October 29th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

OLATHE, Kan. (AP) _ A man with a taste for sadomasochistic sex was convicted Tuesday of murdering three women and stuffing the bodies of two of them into 85-gallon barrels on his rural property.

John E. Robinson Sr., 58, could get the death penalty.

A jury convicted him capital murder in the slayings of Suzette Trouten, 27, of Newport, Mich., and Izabela Lewicka, 21, a former Purdue University student from West Lafayette, Ind., both of whom were found in barrels.

Both women had met Robinson over the Internet and came to Kansas to become his sex slaves.

Robinson also was convicted of first-degree murder for the 1985 death and disappearance of Lisa Stasi, 19, whose body has never been found.

Prosecutors said Robinson was a predator who trolled the Internet looking for women. His lawyers acknowledged he engaged in sadomasochism but suggested the evidence pointed to other people in the slayings.

He is awaiting trial in Missouri on charges of killing two women and a girl whose bodies were found in barrels in a storage locker in suburban Kansas City, Mo.

The victims all had gaping holes in their heads. A weapon was never found.