Avis Robinson was a 31-year-old woman whose life ended violently on May 1, 1988. She was found dead inside a vacant apartment, where investigators determined that she had been strangled. The circumstances surrounding the discovery left authorities with a homicide investigation centered on a killing that had taken place away from the public eye, inside an unoccupied residence.
The man ultimately held responsible was Clifton Cousins. Cousins admitted that he had murdered Robinson, giving authorities information that connected him to her strangulation. His admission was particularly significant because Robinson was not the only woman whose death would be tied to him. Court records from later proceedings confirm that Cuyahoga County Assistant Prosecutor Steven Dever prosecuted Cousins in two homicide cases and specifically described Cousins' murder victims as having been killed by strangulation.
The second prosecuted killing occurred approximately a year after Robinson's death. The victim was 21-year-old Sonseearay Harris, who was killed in 1989. Cousins admitted responsibility for Harris's murder as well, connecting the two killings and establishing that Robinson's death was not an isolated act of violence. The two women were killed in separate incidents, but the strangulation method and Cousins' admissions brought the cases together during the prosecution.
Cousins was prosecuted for both homicides and received life sentences. Later federal court records describe him as serving two life sentences in Ohio state custody, while an Ohio appellate court record confirms that Dever was the prosecutor responsible for the two homicide cases against him. Those records provide additional confirmation that Cousins was not merely investigated or considered a suspect in Robinson's death; he was actually prosecuted for the homicide.
In later years, Robinson's murder became part of a much broader and more disturbing history involving Cousins. While incarcerated, he claimed responsibility for numerous additional killings. An Ohio prosecutor stated in court records that Cousins had confessed to more than 30 homicides involving women in different parts of the United States, although authorities were unable to substantiate most of those claims and Cousins was known to make and later retract admissions. Robinson's case was different: her killing was one of the two homicides for which Cousins was actually prosecuted and sentenced.
Cousins continued making extraordinary claims about other killings long after his convictions. Among them was his confession to the 1987 shooting death of Robert Letson, a case in which another man, Donell Parker, had been convicted. Cousins provided sworn affidavits claiming that he had shot Letson during an attempted robbery, but that confession did not result in a homicide prosecution against Cousins. The later controversy surrounding those admissions underscores an important distinction in Robinson's case: Avis Robinson was not simply one of the many victims Cousins claimed to have killed. Her strangulation was one of the murders for which prosecutors formally brought Cousins to justice, resulting in his imprisonment under life sentences.
