Man sentenced to life in prison without parole for killing, dismembering Sade Robinson after first date in Milwaukee

CBS News

4 days ago

A man was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole last week for the murder of a Milwaukee college student after their first date.
Sade Robinson, 19, was murdered in April of last year. Her dismembered body parts were found in the Milwaukee Area, and her arm was found at a Waukegan beach.
Maxwell Anderson, 33, was found guilty in June of first-degree intentional homicide, mutilating a corpse, arson of property and hiding a corpse. He was sentenced this past Friday.
Authorities said on Monday, April 1, 2024, Robinson met Anderson for a first date at the Twisted Fisherman seafood restaurant on West Canal Street in Milwaukee.
Robinson was last seen alive at Anderson's home.
Robinson's 2020 Honda Civic was found torched the next day, and video showed Anderson leaving the scene where the burned car was found, prosecutors said. He was arrested two days later in a traffic stop by the Milwaukee County Sheriff's office.
Prosecutors said Anderson mutilated Robinson's body, then dropped parts of her around the Milwaukee area.
A leg severed at the hip was found by a passerby down a bluff in Warnimont Park on the evening of April 2, 2024, and then a foot was found four days later near 31st and Galena streets in Milwaukee's Walnut Hill neighborhood, CBS 58 reported.
More remains were found in the weeks afterward. A torso and an arm were found at a remote stretch of tree-lined Lake Michigan beach in South Milwaukee on April 18, and later, an arm that is believed to be Robinson's washed up on the Waukegan Municipal Beach – 53 miles from Milwaukee.
"After being killed, [Robinson] was disgraced in the worst way imaginable," Milwaukee County Assistant District Attorney Ian Vance-Curzan said at the hearing.
Anderson's mother, father, and sister spoke at the sentencing hearing Friday.
"He deserves the punishment that he gave to my daughter," Robinson's father, Carlos Robinson, said at the hearing. "Everything that he did to her should be done to him. That would be justice. I don't feel like he should be allowed to walk around and breathe air. The moment he did what he did, he lost that."
"He made it to where I couldn't go to school without people giving me looks of pity, or no longer knowing how to interact with me, because neither them nor I knew what to say — for there is nothing you could say for what he did. He made it where I cannot ride my bike without random, but kind strangers stopping me, because they feel the need to pray for me and my family despite not knowing us," said Robinson's sister, Adrianna Reams. "He made it to where I cannot trust anyone — not just emotionally, but I cannot meet any person without fear that they're going to harm or kill me — because all my sister did was meet someone, and as a result, he ended her life."
Robinson's mother, Sheena Scarborough, called Anderson a "devil" and his family "demonic," and used profanity to describe him as she addressed him directly.
CBS 58 reported that when permitted to speak, Anderson himself insisted that he did not commit the murder.
"From the bottom of my heart, my deepest and most sincere condolences go out to Sade's family, as well as everyone affected by this tragedy," Anderson said.
He continued, "I took this to trial without ever once trying to make a plea deal of any kind, because I did not commit these crimes."
CBS 58 reported that in a pre-sentencing interview, Anderson claimed an unknown assailant abducted Robinson, and her car was set afire by someone else trying to set him up.
Anderson's father, Steven, also spoke on his behalf.
But before pronouncing Anderson's sentence, Milwaukee County Judge Laura Crivello emphasized that Anderson had failed to take responsibility for the crime, saying in part, "I have to look at whether you're remorseful, and I don't think you're remorseful in any way."
With that, she sentenced Anderson to life in prison without parole.
Robinson's mother has also filed a lawsuit against two Milwaukee bars that allegedly served Robinson, who was underage at the time she met Anderson, CBS 58 reported.
Robinson's family has also filed a civil lawsuit against Anderson.