Madison, Wisconsin — A Milwaukee man was sentenced Friday to life in prison without the possibility of parole after killing a 19-year-old college student on their first date and dispersing her body parts around the area.
In June, a jury convicted Maxwell Anderson of first-degree intentional homicide, mutilating a corpse, arson, and concealing a corpse in connection with Sade Robinson’s death last year. He remained innocent throughout the trial.
Parents lash out during hearing
During a sentencing hearing that was somber, emotional, and terrifying, Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Laura Crivello repeatedly questioned Anderson’s ability to commit such heinous crimes.
Prosecutors described how Anderson dismembered Robinson’s body and discarded one of her legs near a playground.
Sheena Scarbrough, Robinson’s mother, stated that Anderson “messed up the entire community” and should not be protected in prison.
“Judge, I’m asking this demon be respectfully returned back to hell as soon as possible,” Scarbrough told the jury.
Carlos Robinson, Robinson’s father, suggested to the judge that someone dismember Anderson.
“Everything that he did should be done to him,” he thundered. “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.”
Mandatory life sentence
First-degree intentional homicide in Wisconsin carries a mandatory life sentence. Anderson’s only question was whether the judge would allow him to seek parole.
Anderson’s attorney, Tony Cotton, requested that the judge make Anderson eligible for parole after 25 years. He claimed Anderson served in the US Navy and suffers from obvious mental health issues.
Cotton acknowledged that Anderson has been convicted of multiple misdemeanor disorderly conduct counts related to domestic violence, but these are minor offenses in comparison to the majority of homicide defendants. He added that he is concerned about Anderson’s safety in prison.
“That is a real consideration,” Cotton stated. “At the end of the day, there is not mob justice in this country.”
Anderson says he didn’t do it
Anderson informed the judge that he is innocent and intends to appeal his convictions. He didn’t go into detail, but Crivello later revealed that Anderson told an investigator that Robinson had been kidnapped after leaving his apartment following their date.
“I hope that true justice will be served,” Anderson said Friday.
‘Unconscionable’ crimes out of a horror story, judge says
Crivello refused to offer Anderson a chance at parole. She dismissed Anderson’s claims of innocence, saying his view of reality “differs from the rest of the world.” Trailing off at times and shaking her head, she said he’s irredeemable, called his crimes “unconscionable” and likened the case to something out of a horror novel.
“It’s beyond imaginable to not know whether your child is dead or alive, and then learn they’re dismembered and disgraced, is beyond understanding,” she told me.
She also sentenced Anderson to 7 1/2 years for dismemberment and a year and a half for arson. According to online court records, she dismissed the fourth count of hiding a corpse on Friday after Cotton argued that Anderson could not be convicted of both mutilating and hiding a corpse.
First date turns deadly
Anderson and Robinson, a Milwaukee Area Technical College student, met at a bar in March 2024, one week before her death.
Surveillance video, cellphone text messages, and tracking records show they spent the late afternoon and early evening of April 1 drinking at two bars before returning to Anderson’s apartment.
Photos from Anderson’s phone show Anderson groped Robinson while she lay facedown on his couch. Prosecutors claim she was incapacitated and couldn’t resist.
Surveillance video shows her car leaving his apartment early on April 2 and driving to a park along the Lake Michigan shoreline. Prosecutors say that is where he cut her body into pieces. He later burned her car behind an abandoned building before taking the bus home.
Searchers found one of Robinson’s legs in the park, as well as her other leg and a foot near a playground near where he burned the car. A human torso and an arm thought to be Robinson’s washed up on a beach in suburban South Milwaukee.
