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Yahoo
27-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
What happened to Sade Robinson: A timeline of events in the missing 19-year-old's murder and dismemberment case
The criminal trial surrounding the death of 19-year-old Sade Robinson began May 27. It's been more than a year since Milwaukee and the country discovered that the reported missing college student had been killed and her body dismembered and spread across the area. Prosecutors say Maxwell Anderson is responsible for her gruesome death. The 34-year-old local bartender was captured on a video with Robinson on April 1, 2024. Here's what to know about the case and what has happened the prior 14 months. Robinson's final hours begin the afternoon of April 1, 2024, a day before she was reported missing in Milwaukee. The criminal justice student at MATC told an employee who worked at her apartment building that she was excited for a date later that night. According to prosecutors: Robinson sent Anderson a text at 4:15 p.m. and the two arranged to go to a couple establishments in town at which Anderson previously worked. After dinner at Twisted Fisherman restaurant, 1200 W. Canal St., the two arrive in Robinson's car at Duke's on Water, 158 E. Juneau Ave. At 6:30 p.m., while at Duke's, Robinson sends a SnapChat to a friend. Robinson and Anderson leave the bar shortly after 9 p.m. Surveillance video shows two people arriving at Anderson's former home on the 3100 block of South 39th Street at 9:24 p.m. Robinson's phone is also located by GPS in the area of the home. In the early morning hours of April 2, 2024, Robinson's phone is located leaving Anderson's home and traveling throughout Milwaukee County. According to prosecutors: First to Pleasant Valley Park, along the Milwaukee River in the city's Riverwest neighborhood and then to Warnimont Park in Cudahy, arriving at 2:45 a.m. Surveillance cameras capture a car heading toward the pump house at Warnimont Park before also capturing a person descend the bluff to the beach level. The vehicle leaves the park at 4:31 a.m. and minutes later, Robinson's phone loses battery. Later that morning, the 2020 Honda Civic belonging to Robinson is found on fire on the 1800 block of North 29th Street. A witness said he saw a male exit the vehicle and toss a lighter into it before walking away. Video footage from a Milwaukee County Transit System bus shows Anderson, in the clothing description the witness provided (a gray hoodie and tan backpack), getting off the bus near his home. He arrives home at 8:43 a.m. Shortly before 5:30 p.m. that evening, someone finds a human leg belonging to a Black woman (later confirmed to be Robinson's) at Warnimont Park. The leg was found about two-thirds of the way down a 100-foot bluff, toward the shoreline and near a pump house. About 3½ hours later, A friend of Robinson reports her missing to Milwaukee police after she fails to return phone calls and show for her shift at Pizza Shuttle on Milwaukee's east side. Law enforcement pull over Anderson the afternoon of April 4, 2024 in his car and arrest him just blocks from his home. A hoodie found in his car matches the hoodie of the suspect who torched Robinson's car, according to prosecutors. Sometime that day, law enforcement execute a search warrant at Anderson's home. Officers find blood in one of the bedrooms and on the walls leading to the basement, prosecutors said. Several gasoline containers are also found. Police find a human foot that appears to match the leg found in Cudahy in the area of North 31st and West Galena streets, near where Robinson's car was found. Other human flesh was also found in the area. Authorities reportedly discover several more body parts the next day, including near 31st and Walnut streets. A person in a hoodie and backpack is captured on surveillance footage near 31st and Walnut. One week after his arrest, Anderson was charged with first-degree intentional homicide, mutilating a corpse, and arson in the death of Robinson. If convicted of intentional homicide, a Class A felony, he will be sentenced to life in prison. He has pleaded not guilty to all counts and remains in jail on $5 million bail. The Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office says they are conducting a "follow-up search" of Anderson's home, which became a place at which people left tributes for Robinson. The home has since been sold to new owners. The sheriff's office says that a torso and an arm believed to belong to Robinson was discovered in a remote, tree-line stretch of beach in South Milwaukee. A memorial service was held for Anderson at the Baird Center in downtown Milwaukee. Sade entering the world "gave my life purpose," said Carlos Robinson, Sade's father. "I watched her grow from a tiny little baby to a beautiful, intelligent young lady that would make any father proud." The attendees, speakers and performers at the memorial displayed the gravity of Sade's reach on the Milwaukee community. Lifelong friends, classmates, professors, pastors, activists and her employers and coworkers were all in attendance. Mayor Cavalier Johnson had a brief conversation with Sheena Scarbrough, Sade's mother. An arm believed to belong to Robinson washed up on the beach in Waukegan, Illinois, according to authorities. Anderson's attorney Anthony D. Cotton sent a letter to Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Mark A. Sanders, asking that his client be furnished with a laptop that has discovery evidence in his case already saved on it. Robinson's estate and her mother filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Anderson. Robinson's family alleges Anderson's family later went to his home and threw away items inside the residence, then moved forward with selling it in an effort "to conceal and hide evidence." Without providing evidence, the lawsuit alleges a finger was found outside the property shortly after Anderson's home was sold. But authorities say that was not the case. A sheriff's spokesman said the assertion about a finger discovered on the property wasn't true. Judge Sanders rejected a request made by Anderson's attorney to grant Anderson access to a laptop. Cotton argued the device would have helped kept Anderson up to speed on developments in the case, and enabled him to aid in his own defense. At a July 12, 2024, hearing at the Milwaukee County Courthouse, Anderson's attorney requests the trial be moved to a different county and unsealed search warrants reveal some of what was found during the searches of Anderson's home. Detectives found a knife in the kitchen sink, an ax hanging on the living room wall and women's clothing hidden under a bench in the basement. A woman's ID card also was found during the search. A detective found a possible blood stain in Anderson's car, on a door speaker. Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Laura Crivello will now be presiding over the case as part of a judicial rotation schedule change ordered by Chief Judge Carl Ashley that affected many of the court's judges. A University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee grad, Crivello received her juris doctorate to practice law in 1993 from Marquette University Law School. She worked as an assistant district attorney in Milwaukee County from 1993-2018, when she was appointed to the court by then-Gov. Scott Walker. Crivello retained her seat in an uncontested 2019 judge race. A judge's term is six years. Milwaukee muralist, Ruben Alcantar, completes his mural of Robinson outside her former employer, Pizza Shuttle, a staple on the city's east side. She was remembered as a remarkable and caring person by her coworkers. Winston Milhans, her coworker, said Sade was that burst of energy that coworkers often give each other to help motivate them. Milhans said Sade was a "person that is a perfect example of who you want to be like. Her traits were remarkable." Robinson's mother, Scarbrough, joined lawmakers at the State Capitol to call for more state resources to be funneled toward understanding and tracking cases that end in the disappearance or death of Black women and girls like her daughter. Robinson's murder renewed a push by Democratic female lawmakers to create a state task force for missing and murdered Black women and girls. For the fourth time in a row, that effort failed. Assistant District Attorney Ian Vance-Curzan, the lead prosecutor, said he plans to enter roughly 500 exhibits and pieces of evidence as part of his case against Anderson at trial. He said he made no offers to Anderson, and that he expects the trial to run one to two weeks. Vance-Curzan signals a need for a bigger jury pool due to the media coverage of the case. Ian Vance-Curzan said he intends to call in several scientific experts to testify, including a medical examiner, an anthropologist, a fingerprint analyst and a DNA expert. A person with expertise in collecting and crunching cellphone tower data also may be brought in. Cotton, Anderson's attorney, requests access to Robinson's encrypted data on her phone. Trial is delayed until May 2025 from Dec. 9, 2024. A memorial planned by Milwaukee County for Robinson has been canceled after County Board supervisors reported a flurry of racist, abusive emails over the proposal. The Robinson family files a lawsuit against the two bars that Anderson and Robinson went to about a year prior, arguing staff at each establishment didn't ask for her ID before she was served multiple alcoholic beverages, but sold them to her anyway. Robinson was later seen "visibly intoxicated" and "rendered defenseless," the lawsuit contends, leaving her "physically and mentally vulnerable." A pool of 50 to 70 jurors is expected to be called to serve. Typically, jury pools of 30 to 40 people are called to serve in most cases before they are whittled down to a final panel of 14 jurors who will hear testimony. Once testimony wraps up, 12 jurors are asked to deliberate; the others are dismissed. Jury selection got underway at 9 a.m. on May 27. It's unclear how long that will take but it will precede opening statements and testimony. The trial is expected to last up to two weeks. This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Timeline of events in Sade Robinson's murder, dismemberment case
Yahoo
18-05-2025
- Yahoo
MATC downtown Milwaukee campus fire, feds charge man with arson
The Brief A fire was set at MATC's downtown Milwaukee campus on Tuesday, May 13. Federal prosecutors charged a man with arson of a building used in interstate commerce. The same man was convicted in a 2015 Milwaukee County arson case. MILWAUKEE - Federal prosecutors charged a man with arson in connection with a fire set at Milwaukee Area Technical College's downtown campus on Tuesday, May 13. In Court Court filings state Jarriel Cotton is charged with one count of arson of a building used in interstate commerce. He made his initial appearance in federal court on Friday. FREE DOWNLOAD: Get breaking news alerts in the FOX LOCAL Mobile app for iOS or Android What they're saying Prosecutors said Cotton set fire to an upholstered chair on the third floor of the MATC campus building near Lovell and State. It happened around 6:45 a.m. After setting the fire, he left – but returned around 4:30 p.m. that day and was ultimately taken into custody. The fire was captured on surveillance video, and a criminal complaint said the flames reached up to 10 feet in the air. It set off the sprinkler system on the second and third floors of the building. A restoration company estimated the cost to repair and clean the damage at between $150,000 and $200,000. Court filings said, because MATC's student body is composed of both in-state and out-of-state students, the downtown building is used in interstate commerce. SIGN UP TODAY: Get daily headlines, breaking news emails from FOX6 News Once in custody, a detective tried to conduct a Mirandized interview with Cotton. Court filings said he did not want to make a statement. Dig deeper Federal prosecutors said Cotton has a prior conviction in Milwaukee County Circuit Court for a 2015 arson. Court records show he was sentenced to four years' probation in the case in 2016. The Source Information in this report is from the U.S. Attorney's Office, U.S. District Court and Wisconsin Circuit Court.
Yahoo
21-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Two Wisconsin students battle for Wisconsin Student of the Week poll for week of April 21
April showers bring May flowers, and this week brings a new Wisconsin Student of the Week poll. This week, we feature two students who were nominated for their positive influence in their school communities. Read what the people who nominated these high school students say about them below, and then vote in our poll to determine who should take the title of Wisconsin Student of the Week. Don't see anyone from your high school here? Keep reading to learn how you can nominate a student from your school for our weekly poll. "Cal is a top-tier student who consistently earns high grades through hard work and dedication. He actively participates in class, demonstrating a strong commitment to learning. Beyond academics, he is highly involved in extracurricular activities, where he leads by example with quiet confidence. Cal is not only a leader but also a kind and respectful individual. He treats his peers and teachers with respect, fostering a positive and inclusive environment wherever he goes. His work ethic and character truly set him apart, making him a role model for his classmates. Cal embodies the values of integrity, determination, and leadership, making him an ideal choice for recognition." -Alexis Vuksan, English teacher, Pulaski High School "Teriayna pushes to go the extra mile in anything she attempts. Not only is she a well-rounded student, but she balances being a shining light in the community. Teriayna is a dual-enrollment student who takes classes at MATC while earning credits here at Messmer. She is an active participant in the Greater Milwaukee Urban League program as well, where she volunteers within the community and prepares for college in the fall. She is always up for the next challenge, and always available to lend a helping hand when needed. Teriayna continues to be a positive burst of energy for any and everyone she encounters. Teriayna, we are extremely proud to call you a Bishop. " -Melissa Hoeppner, counselor, Messmer High School This week's poll runs from Monday, April 21, until noon Thursday, April 24. We will announce the winner online April 25 at and and in our newspapers on Sunday, April 27. Happy voting! Do you work with youth and know someone who could be Student of the Week? Reach out to Debi Young, statewide education editor, at to get a link to the nomination form. Rebecca Loroff is a K-12 education reporter for the USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin. She welcomes story tips and feedback. Contact her at rloroff@ This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Vote in our 22nd Wisconsin Student of the Week poll
Yahoo
31-01-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Wisconsin Technical College System lays out budget request during legislative briefing
(Photo Courtesy of MATC) Leaders of the Wisconsin Technical College System (WTCS) laid out the system's requests for the 2025-27 state budget to support college operations and students' education during a Thursday legislative briefing. Education funding will likely be a major point of debate in the upcoming budget process, with public K-12 schools, the UW System and the technical colleges all requesting increases. The technical college system is made up of 16 colleges across the state serving about 287,000 students each year who pursue associate degrees, technical diplomas or short-term certificates. The technical college system's budget for 2024-25 totaled about $1.3 billion, with $592.9 million — or 44% — coming from state aid. About 17% of the remainder comes from tuition and fees and 39% comes from property taxes. 'We are very lean overall in terms of our overall funding picture… we have to be because funding is always limited resources,' said system President Layla Merrifield, who started in the position in September 2024. The system's increase would add up to just under $60 million in general purpose revenue, according to a Department of Administration summary. According to the system, about 70% of the funding would be distributed based on a formula and 30% would be distributed based on outcomes. WTCS policy advisor Megan Stritchko said the request is about 4% of the current budget and is meant to help expand capacity for the technical colleges to meet employer demand across a wide variety of industries. The funding would then be able to be used by each college to meet its 'unique needs,' Stritchko said. 'The colleges are hearing from really all the employers in their district just looking for skilled labor, and so this is to help with capacity to meet that demand,' Stritchko said. 'It's also to help with expanding the pipeline of talent so trying to bring more folks into the technical college system — get them trained up, get them a credential and get them out into the workforce, and then supporting those students while they're within the colleges and helping ensure that they're successful.' Stritchko noted that technical colleges have been facing rising costs, including because of rapidly advancing technology. The system is requesting $700,000 in general purpose funds for positions in the Technical College System office and for information technology and security to maintain the system's operations and enable continuous improvement in outcomes. Merrifield said the office helps coordinate the work of the system. 'We are currently funded at the same level we were funded at 20 years ago,' Merrifield said. 'Everything that we do is database decision making. We really try to take in all of this great data from our colleges and then turn it into something useful, and give it back to them so that they know how they can improve relative to their fellow colleges. All of that requires resources.' Part of the request includes $3 million across the biennium to provide grants to colleges for teaching and learning materials that are in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use. The system has said the investment would help to reduce the cost of education as students across the system can access those resources, making it more affordable and accessible. 'These textbooks need to be maintained and they need to be updated regularly, just like when you had books, when you're in school, there are version one, version two, version three and they all need to be updated,' WTCS policy advisor Brandon Trujillo said, adding that the system has identified nursing and automotive as some programs where students would benefit from available materials. The system is also seeking $10 million across the biennium to prepare students and educators for the adoption of artificial intelligence in the classroom and the workforce. The system is also requesting $10.8 million in each year of the biennium to go towards Wisconsin Grants, administered by the Wisconsin Higher Educational Aids Board. The program provides grants to undergraduate Wisconsin residents enrolled at least half-time in degree or certificate programs. According to the system, for the first time in over 10 years there has been a waitlist for the grants, with about 3,200 students by the end of fiscal year 2023-24. It is projected that the waitlist will grow significantly in FY 2024-25 due to changes in the federal formula for determining a student's financial need. 'We're seeing student need increase across our system and it's going to continue to increase,' Trujillo said. While Wisconsin's state agencies have submitted their budget requests, Gov. Tony Evers will deliver his budget address and release his complete budget proposal next month. The budget will be in the hands of state lawmakers. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
