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Left: Maxwell Anderson hears his guilty verdict (Law&Crime). Right: Sade Robinson (Milwaukee Police Department).
A jury in Wisconsin took less than an hour to convict a man of murdering a 19-year-old woman on their first date and chopping up her body.
Maxwell Anderson, 34, was convicted of first-degree intentional homicide, mutilation of a corpse and arson of property other than building in the April 2024 death of Sade C. Robinson.
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Key to the quick verdict, one juror told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, was shocking and graphic photos Anderson took on his phone that he later deleted but were recovered by investigators. One showed Anderson holding Robinson’s right breast while she laid either unconscious or dead on his basement floor. While various body parts washed ashore on Lake Michigan to horrified beachgoers in the days after her disappearance, cops never recovered Robinson’s torso.
“This is his trophy in a way,” juror Melissa Blascoe told the Journal Sentinel. “Those pictures will be in my mind for quite some time.”
Other photos showed Robinson’s bare backside with underwear and pants that the victim was wearing on the night in question. The photo definitively showed that Robinson was in Anderson’s basement.
“That was pretty damning evidence that shook everyone,” she told the newspaper. “I physically felt like I was gonna throw up at that point. I know a lot of people were shaking and crying.”
More coverage: ‘Uncalled for and unacceptable’: Lawyer for man who allegedly chopped up teen after first date gets death threats, urging him to walk away or his family dies, cops say
Testimony during trial also revealed Anderson watched the Netflix animated series “Love, Death and Robots.” After the trial, prosecutors told jurors about the second season finale where a corpse is 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 told the Journal Sentinel.
Robinson’s family reported her missing after she disappeared following her date. Her mother said she plans on keeping her daughter’s voice alive by being an advocate for missing persons.
“She will forever be remembered as an angel, Sheena Scarbrough told reporters following the verdict.
Prosecutors proved at trial that Anderson spent months prepping his basement by covering it from ceiling to floor with painter’s tarp. There was also a sanitation sink and three saws. The defendant faces a life behind bars when he’s sentenced Aug. 15.
As Law&Crime previously reported, the investigation began April 2, 2024, when someone found a human leg in the water at Warnimont Park in Cudahy, just south of Milwaukee. A joint investigation between the Milwaukee County sheriff’s office and Milwaukee police had determined that Robinson’s family reported her missing the day before, when she failed to show up for work.
According to a criminal complaint, Anderson and Robinson met for the first time on April 1 to go on a date. Detectives reportedly obtained text messages of the two planning their date earlier that day. Surveillance video also shows them at a downtown Milwaukee restaurant and bar before leaving and driving in Robinson’s Honda Civic to Anderson’s home around 9:30 p.m., the complaint said.
An app on Robinson’s phone shows it left Anderson’s home shortly after midnight on April 2 and later traveled to Warnimont Park, where the victim’s leg was later found, the affidavit said. Surveillance video from the park shows a Honda Civic ramming through a gate at around 3 a.m. and someone is seen going down to the water several times 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 it was Robinson’s Honda. Cops recovered surveillance video from a bus that shows Anderson getting on the bus near where the vehicle was torched and riding to a stop near his home, according to the affidavit.
On April 6, Milwaukee police found a foot and human flesh not far from the burned-out Honda, investigators said. The foot and the leg were confirmed to belong to Robinson.
A search of Anderson’s home found blood in a bedroom and on the walls leading to the basement, authorities said. In the basement, investigators found a “sex dungeon,” WISN reported, citing anonymous law enforcement sources.
Authorities have continued to recover body parts in the ensuing months.
“Our hearts are with the family and loved ones of Sade Robinson,” Milwaukee police Chief Jeffrey Norman said in a statement. “This is a horrendous tragedy and above all else, I cannot imagine the pain you must be going through. I would like to express my deepest and most sincere sympathy.”
Robinson was close to earning an associate degree in criminal justice at Milwaukee Area Technical College and also considered joining the U.S. Air Force.
Her mother told reporters after Anderson’s arrest 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 said, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “She hurt nobody. She harmed nobody.”
