Harvey Miguel Robinson was just 19 when he was sentenced to death for murdering two women and a 15-year-old girl between 1992 and 1993, becoming the youngest serial killer in the U.S. to ever be put on death row.
The Morning CallHarvey Robinson
In the span of under a year and at just 17 years old, Harvey Robinson attacked five women, killing three. The Allentown, Pennsylvania native is currently the only person on death row to have committed crimes as a juvenile serial killer.
The crimes were gruesome. Robinson raped and murdered three women, and raped and attacked two more victims. His last victim, one of the survivors, ultimately led to his arrest and prosecution.
The killing spree took place over thirty years ago, however his case has continued to be the subject of discussion and debate. While originally sentenced to death, Robinson successfully got the sentence changed to life in prison on the bases that he was a minor when the crimes were committed.
Harvey Robinson’s Childhood Laid The Groundwork For His Future Crimes
The Morning CallRobinson’s childhood may provide an insight into his crimes.
Like many juvenile offenders, Robinson’s background seems tailor made for his downfall. He was born on December 6, 1974, in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
Growing up, Robinson had a strong admiration for his father. He was a jazz musician in Pottstown, but that’s not where the story ends. Allegedly Robinson’s father was physically and emotionally abusive to Robinson’s mother.
In 1963, he was convicted of the brutal murder of a woman named Marlene E. Perez. Police reports from the crime said Robinson’s father had beaten the 27-year-old victim so badly that she was nearly unrecognizable.
This influence was noticeable on Robinson, who was first arrested by police at only nine years old. In school, he showed signs of severe conduct disorder, and teachers quickly noted Robinson’s inability to tell right from wrong and his severe distaste for authority. As his threats and outbursts intensified with age, both peers and authoritative figures began to fear him.
Thirty years later, Harvey Robinson would begin down the dark path of his father. In 1993, Robinson spotted his first victim, Joan Burghardt, undressing before bed in her apartment window.
After a neighbor called police to complain about Burghardt leaving her stereo on for three days and three nights, police discovered the 29-year-old’s body — raped and brutally murdered. Police noted that her bedroom screen window was also missing.
As Officials In Leigh County Look For Robinson, He Continues To Kill
The Morning CallRobinson was arrested after Burghardt was murdered — but for burglary, not murder.
Police frantically searched for Burghardt’s killer. Little did they know, they already had him in custody.
The police were already holding Robinson for completely unrelated charges. He went to prison for eight months for burglary before returning to Allentown.
Robinson then slipped under the radar and was back on the streets to commit more carnage in no time.
His next victim was 15-year-old newspaper carrier Charlotte Schmoyer. On the morning of June 9, 1993, people began scanning the streets when they woke up and did not find newspapers on their doorsteps. One client, however, found Schmoyer’s paper cart abandoned next to her bike.
Soon enough, residents called the police, who found Schmoyer’s radio headset dropped in between two neighboring houses — along with enough finger streaks on the windowpanes of a nearby garage to hint at a struggle. These details offered police enough evidence to conclude that Schmoyer had been abducted.
The Morning CallRobinson on his way to his preliminary hearing after being arrested by police.
The resulting search party did not take long to find blood, a shoe and finally, the battered young body of Schmoyer stuffed haphazardly under a stack of logs. An autopsy report would later go on to show she had been stabbed at least 22 times and raped repeatedly with her throat slashed in obvious overkill.
During the investigation of Schmoyer’s murder, Robinson had another close-call with police. He was pulled over for a speeding violation. Who knows whether he thought the police suspected him, but it didn’t matter for Robinson on that day. The police officer gave Robinson a speeding ticket and left.
Harvey Robinson’s gruesome teenage murder streak didn’t end there. His third victim was a 47-year-old grandmother, Jessica Jean Fortney, who he sexually assaulted before strangling to death the month after killing Schmoyer.
Robinson had one other known victim — and she was only five years old. After stalking her mother for days, Robinson broke in to the child’s home, where he raped and choked her before leaving her for a death that never came.
How Robinson’s Final Victim Led To His Capture
The Morning CallSam-Cali survived Robinson’s attack and helped the police to catch him.
Robinson’s fourth victim, however, would finally lead to his capture. Denise Sam-Cali was alone in her home on the night of June 28, 1993, when she woke up to strange noises in her walk-in closet.
She tried to flee, but Robinson stepped out of the closet and grabbed her before she could leaved. He raped her before attempting to kill her.
But Sam-Cali fought back. She punched Robinson and bit his arm, a mark that would later be used by police to identify her attacker. She escaped his grasp, and ran-off to call the police.
Sam-Cali agreed to allow the police to use her as bait. When Robinson returned to Sam-Cali’s home several nights later to presumably “finish off the job,” an officer was there to meet him.
Robinson, who broke in through the window, and the officer exchanged gunfire before he fled the scene by crashing through a glass window. After the shootout, police apprehended Robinson at a local hospital where he had gone to seek treatment for his wounds.
Robinson was arrested, and police were able to tie him to the murders of Burghardt, Schmoyer, and Fortney. In November 1994, the court found him guilty of their murders.
Robinson’s Prison Sentence Changed Overtime
The Morning CallSince his initial sentencing in 1994, Robinson has tried to appeal the decisions to try and avoid the death penalty.
While courts often give juvenile defenders much more lenient sentences due to their age, the grisly nature, repetition, and speed of these crimes sparked enough community outrage to lead Robinson — linked to all three murders by DNA evidence — to receive three consecutive death sentences and more than 100 years in prison.
Over the years, however, Robinson has filed appeal after appeal to try and reduce this sentence. In April 2006, Robinson’s execution order was suspended. His sentence for killing Burghardt was later changed to life-in-prison, due to him being 17 at the time the crime was committed.
In 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court released a decision that deemed death sentences for juveniles unconstitutional. That same year, Robinson waived his appeal rights in the case of Schmoyer, exchanging the death sentence to life-in-prison.
However the Supreme Court’s new decision didn’t mean Robinson had completely avoided the death penalty. In 2013, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled to keep his death penalty sentencing in the Fortney case.
But most recently, in 2019, Robinson appealed the decision in the Burghardt case, and was resentenced to 35 years in prison, rather than life-in-prison. The judge for that appeal told Robinson he should considering donating his brain to science, saying “the one gift you can give to the community is helping science understand your behavior”.
Even with this lowered sentence, Robinson still faces a combined 200 years in prison, as well as another life sentence and an additional death sentence.
Harvey Robinson is not the only teen to kill others en masse. These serial killer teens prove it. Then, have a look at 21 serial killer quotes that will chill you to the bone. Finally, see why Edmund Kemper ranks among history’s worst serial killers.
