In less than an hour, a Wisconsin jury convicted a man of murdering a 19-year-old woman on their first date and chopping up her body.
Maxwell Anderson, 34, was found guilty of first-degree intentional homicide, mutilation of a corpse, and arson of property other than a building in the April 2024 death of Sade C. Robinson.
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One juror told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that the shocking and graphic photos Anderson took on his phone, which he later deleted but investigators recovered, were critical to the quick verdict. One image showed Anderson holding Robinson’s right breast while she lay unconscious or dead on the basement floor. In the days following Robinson’s disappearance, various body parts washed ashore on Lake Michigan, horrifying beachgoers, but police never recovered her torso.
“This is his trophy in a way,” jury member Melissa Blascoe told the Journal Sentinel. “Those pictures will be in my mind for quite some time.”
Other photos showed Robinson’s bare backside, along with the victim’s underwear and pants from the night in question. The photograph proved that Robinson was in Anderson’s basement.
“That was pretty damning evidence that shook everyone,” she explained to the newspaper. “I physically felt like I was going to vomit at that point. “I know many people were shaking and crying.”
During the trial, Anderson admitted to watching the Netflix animated series “Love, Death, and Robots.” Following the trial, prosecutors informed jurors about the second season finale, which depicted a corpse being dismembered on a beach.
“I was like, oh, that’s disgusting because that could have been where he got some of his ideas or fantasies,” Blascoe explained to the Journal Sentinel.
Robinson’s family reported her missing after she left her date. Her mother stated that she intends to continue her daughter’s legacy by advocating for missing people.
“She will always be remembered as an angel,” Sheena Scarbrough told reporters after the verdict.
Prosecutors demonstrated at trial that Anderson spent months preparing his basement, covering it from ceiling to floor with a painter’s tarp. There was also a sanitary sink and three saws. The defendant faces life in prison when he is sentenced on August 15.
As Law&Crime previously reported, the investigation began on April 2, 2024, when a human leg was discovered in the water at Warnimont Park in Cudahy, just south of Milwaukee. A joint investigation by the Milwaukee County sheriff’s office and Milwaukee police revealed that Robinson’s family reported her missing the day before, when she failed to show up for work.
According to the criminal complaint, Anderson and Robinson first met on April 1 for a date. Detectives allegedly obtained text messages from the two planning their date earlier that day. Surveillance footage also shows them at a downtown Milwaukee restaurant and bar before leaving in Robinson’s Honda Civic and driving to Anderson’s house around 9:30 p.m., the complaint stated.
According to the affidavit, Robinson’s phone app shows that it left Anderson’s home shortly after midnight on April 2 and then traveled to Warnimont Park, where the victim’s leg was later discovered. Surveillance video from the park shows a Honda Civic ramming through a gate around 3 a.m., and someone is seen repeatedly going down to the water before leaving around 4:30 a.m.
Around 7:30 a.m., the Milwaukee Fire Department responded to the 1800 block of 29th Street for a vehicle fire. Investigators later determined that it was Robinson’s Honda. According to the affidavit, cops recovered surveillance video from a bus showing Anderson getting on the bus near where the vehicle was torched and riding to a stop near his home.
On April 6, Milwaukee police discovered a foot and human flesh near the burned-out Honda, according to investigators. The foot and leg were identified as Robinson’s.
Authorities said a search of Anderson’s home turned up blood in a bedroom and on the walls leading to the basement. In the basement, investigators discovered a “sex dungeon,” according to WISN, citing anonymous law enforcement sources.
In the months that followed, authorities recovered additional body parts.
“Our hearts go out to Sade Robinson’s family and loved ones,” Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey Norman said in a statement. “This is a terrible tragedy, and I can’t imagine the pain you must be experiencing. I’d like to express my heartfelt and genuine sympathy.”
Robinson was on the verge of earning an associate’s degree in criminal justice from Milwaukee Area Technical College and was also thinking about joining the United States Air Force.
Following Anderson’s arrest, her mother told reporters that her daughter’s alleged killer is a “sick son of a b—.”
“Who the f— would do something like this to my beautiful baby?” she exclaimed, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “She didn’t hurt anyone. She harmed no one.”
