Maxwell Anderson, the Milwaukee man convicted of killing and dismembering a 19-year-old college student, has been sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole.
Circuit Judge Laura Crivello sentenced the 34-year-old man to life in prison with no chance of parole on Friday, Aug. 1, nearly two months after he was found guilty on all counts for Sade Carleena Robinson’s murder and dismemberment, according to the Associated Press and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Anderson was found guilty by a jury in June of first-degree intentional homicide, dismembering a corpse, arson, and concealing a corpse in connection with the April 2024 death.
Investigators claimed he killed Robinson on their first date and dispersed her remains throughout Milwaukee County. His conviction resulted in a mandatory sentence of life in prison, and the judge announced the parole decision on August 1.
Robinson’s mother, Sheena Scarbrough, referred to Anderson as a “demon” during the sentencing hearing, saying he “messed the entire community up.” The teen’s father, Carlos Robinson, has also spoken out.
“Everything that he did should be done to him,” Carlos said, according to the AP. “No man should be able to live after his actions. That’s exactly how I feel. I can’t get over this. “I can’t.”
While Anderson’s attorney, Anthony Cotton, urged the judge to grant his client parole, citing his time in the United States Navy and apparent mental health issues, the judge declined.
Anderson also stated on August 1 that he hoped “true justice will be delivered” after claiming innocence. According to the Sentinel, he claimed he “did not commit these crimes” and planned to appeal the convictions.
Cotton did not promptly respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
During the sentencing, Crivello described Anderson’s crimes as “unconscionable” and stated that his perception of reality “differs from the rest of the world.”
She sentenced him to an additional seven and a half years on the dismemberment charge and a year and a half on the arson charge, while apparently dismissing his count of hiding a corpse after Cotton argued that he couldn’t be convicted of both charges, according to the Associated Press.
According to the Associated Press, Assistant District Attorney Ian Vance-Curzan stated during the trial’s closing arguments in June that Anderson, 33 at the time, met Robinson at a bar the week before she disappeared.
Both surveillance video and cell phone records showed the two together in the late afternoon and early evening of April 1, according to Vance-Curzan, who added that they went to two bars before returning to Anderson’s apartment.
According to the Associated Press, authorities later discovered photos on Anderson’s phone of him groping Robinson while she lay face down on his couch, despite the prosecutor describing her as incapacitated.
On April 2, video footage showed Robinson’s vehicle leaving Anderson’s apartment and arriving at a park near Lake Michigan, where prosectors said Anderson cut the victim’s body up without being seen. An informant also claimed that Anderson provided a detailed plan for the killing.
“My daughter had to cross your demonic path,” Scarbrough stated at the August 1 hearing. “You plotted and planned to kill and dismember my daughter, and then you disrespectfully spread her across Milwaukee like trash. “How dare you?”
“My daughter represented everything. She was everything to each of us. This has had an extreme impact on the world and the community. There’s no way in hell we should’ve had to go through what you [dragged] us through. “You knew you were guilty.”
Scarbrough also informed the convicted murderer of her daughter that he could “no longer hurt” her child. “She is in heaven.” She is protected. We go deep. My ancestors run deep. “When you touched my daughter, you f—-d with the wrong family,” she explained.
