Milwaukee man gets life in prison for killing and dismembering a woman on first date

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Milwaukee man who killed a 19-year-old college student on their first date and spread her body parts around the area was sentenced Friday to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

A jury convicted Maxwell Anderson in June of first-degree intentional homicide, mutilating a corpse, arson and hiding a corpse in connection with Sade Robinson’s death last year. He maintained his innocence throughout the trial.

Parents lash out during hearing

During a sentencing hearing that was by turns somber, emotional and horrifying, Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Laura Crivello repeatedly questioned how Anderson could commit such a heinous crime. Prosecutors related details of how Anderson cut up Robinson’s body and dumped one of her legs near a playground.

Robinson’s mother, Sheena Scarbrough, said Anderson “messed the entire community up” and deserves no protection in prison.

“Judge, I’m asking this demon be respectfully returned back to hell as soon as possible,” Scarbrough said.

Robinson’s father, Carlos Robinson, suggested to the judge that someone dismember Anderson.

“Everything that he did should be done to him,” he said. “No man should be able to live after what he did. That’s just how I feel. I can’t get past this. I can’t.”

Mandatory life sentence

First-degree intentional homicide in Wisconsin carries a mandatory life sentence. The only question for Anderson was whether the judge would allow him to seek parole.

Anderson’s attorney, Tony Cotton, asked the judge to make Anderson eligible for parole after 25 years. He argued that Anderson served in the U.S. Navy and suffers from obvious mental health issues.

Cotton acknowledged that Anderson has been convicted of multiple misdemeanor disorderly conduct counts in connection with domestic violence but they’re not significant offenses compared to most homicide defendants. He added that he has concerns about Anderson’s safety in prison.

“That is a real consideration,” Cotton said. “At the end of the day, there is not mob justice in this country.”

Anderson says he didn’t do it

Anderson told the judge that he’s innocent and plans to appeal his convictions. He didn’t elaborate, although Crivello later noted that Anderson had told an investigator that some stranger must have kidnapped Robinson after she left his apartment following their date.

“I hope true justice will be delivered,” 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 said.

She also sentenced Anderson to 7 1/2 years on the dismemberment count and a year and a half on the arson charge. Online court records indicate she dismissed the fourth count of hiding a corpse on Friday after Cotton argued Anderson can’t be convicted of both mutilating and hiding a corpse.

First date turns deadly

Anderson and Robinson, a student at Milwaukee Area Technical College, met at a bar in March 2024 a week before her death. Surveillance video and cellphone text and tracking records show they spent the late afternoon and early evening of April 1 drinking at two bars before heading back to Anderson’s apartment.

Photos on Anderson’s phone show Anderson groping Robinson as she lay face down on his couch. Prosecutors have argued she was incapacitated and couldn’t resist.

Surveillance video shows her car leaving his apartment early on the morning of April 2 and arriving at a park along the Lake Michigan shoreline. Prosecutors maintain that’s where he cut her body into pieces. He later burned her car behind an abandoned building and took a bus home.

Searchers discovered one of Robinson’s legs in the park and her other leg and a foot near a playground close to where he burned the car. A human torso and an arm believed to be Robinson’s remains washed up on a beach in suburban South Milwaukee.

Her head is still missing.

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This story has been updated to correct the spelling of the mother’s name to Scarbrough, not Scarborough.