Robinson's Kafkaesque nightmare began Aug. 4, 2008, when he opened up the Daily News and saw his mugshot under the headline "WEEK'S MOST WANTED."
The blurb stated that Robinson was wanted for allegedly raping a woman while holding a sword to her throat. The U.S. Marshals Service offered a "cash reward" for information leading to his arrest.
"It just blew my mind," Robinson said. "They had some kind of reward and everybody was trying to get it."
His North Philly neighbors pointed at him, and some tried to flag down police. "Yo, there he goes," some yelled. Robinson ducked into an alley. He made his way to his sister's house, where he began to cry.
"I just started shaking," Robinson said. "I kept on saying, 'What did I do? Why is this happening?' "
Robinson and his sister and brother decided to seek help from state Sen. Shirley Kitchen, D-Phila. They drove to her legislative office on Lehigh Avenue near Glenwood; Robinson scooched his head below the window of his sister's white Jeep.
Kitchen persuaded Robinson to turn himself in.
"There was a warrant out for his arrest, and it just wasn't a good idea for him to walk around wanted for such a serious crime," Kitchen said yesterday. "I thought it was going to be straightened out. I really did. . . . I had no idea that this would have led to him being incarcerated for a year."
Robinson said that he doesn't blame Kitchen for what happened next.
"It's not her fault," he said. "She probably thought that I'd be able to be heard once I got down there, but it didn't work like that."
Police shackled Robinson's ankles to a metal bench inside a jail cell, where he sat for eight hours.
Police transported him to the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility, on State Road, where he remained for five months, unable to post bail.
