Latest news with #MilwaukeeAreaTechnicalCollege
NDTV
2 days ago
- NDTV
US Man, 34, Kills And Dismembers 19-Year-Old College Student On Their First Date
Quick Read Summary is AI generated, newsroom reviewed. A 34-year-old man has been found guilty of murdering and dismembering a 19-year-old woman. The victim, Sade Carleena Robinson, went missing after a dinner date with Maxwell Anderson in April 2024. Anderson's phone contained graphic photos linked to the crime, including evidence of dismemberment. A 34-year-old man in the US has been found guilty of killing and dismembering the body of a 19-year-old girl on their first date after the two watched an episode of a Netflix series with an eerily similar theme. According to the New York Post, Maxwell Anderson killed Sade Carleena Robinson in April 2024 after the two met for dinner. They went to a restaurant and a bar before Anderson invited her to his home in Milwaukee. This was the last time Robinson, a criminal justice student at Milwaukee Area Technical College, was seen alive. The 19-year-old was reported missing the next day, when she didn't show up for her shift at a pizzeria. The police checked her home and found no trace of her. Then, on the same day, cops found her sawed-off leg on the shores of Lake Michigan, as per the outlet. They also found additional body parts, including a foot and human flesh, scattered throughout the city. Prosecutors showed bloodied photos from Anderson's phone to prove he was the teen's killer. One deleted picture recovered by investigators captured Anderson holding Robinson's chopped-off right breast. The jury was told that Anderson committed the heinous crime after he watched a Netflix animated series named 'Love, Death & Robots' with Robinson. One of the episodes in the series showed a dismembered corpse, which was discovered on the beach, similar to Robinson's body. Cops also found a "sex dungeon" in Anderson's home after his arrest. In his basement, he had a "sex sling, restraints and handcuffs," police said. Other photos on Anderson's phone included pictures of the 19-year-old inside his home. The jury described the pictures as graphic and disturbing. "That was pretty damning evidence that shook everyone. I physically felt like I was gonna throw up at that point. I know a lot of people were shaking and crying," juror Melissa Blascoe said. Anderson is believed to have planned Robinson's killing for months, creating a space covered in a plastic tarp, the Post reported. After committing the brutal killing, he drove Robinson's car around Milwaukee for some time before parking it in North Milwaukee and setting it on fire. The 15-member jury took 45 minutes to reach a guilty verdict. Anderson was ultimately found guilty of first-degree intentional homicide, mutilating a corpse, hiding a corpse and arson. No motive for the killing was revealed during the trial. The 34-year-old now faces a mandatory life sentence, but Judge Laura Crivello could sentence him to additional extended supervision.
New York Post
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Post
Milwaukee sicko Maxwell Anderson found guilty of murdering, dismembering college student Sade Robinson after first date
A Wisconsin sicko was found guilty of killing and dismembering a 19-year-old college co-ed on their first date in a grisly scene eerily similar to a Netflix documentary he watched days earlier. Maxwell Anderson, 34, sat stone-faced as Judge Laura Crivello read the guilty verdicts in the April 2024 murder of Sade Carleena Robinson after the jury discussed for less than an hour Friday afternoon. Robinson was studying criminal justice at Milwaukee Area Technical College when she met Anderson for dinner on April 1, 2024. Robinson, who was described as being excited for the date, went out to a restaurant and a bar with Anderson before returning to his Milwaukee home. She was reported missing on April 2 when she didn't show up for her shift at a pizzeria. Police conducted a welfare check at Robinson's home on April 3, but found no trace of her. 7 Maxwell Anderson appears in court during his murder trial in Milwaukee, Wisc. on June 5, 2025. AP Robinson's sawed-off leg was found on the shores of Lake Michigan that same day the police visited her residence. Prosecutors used graphic and bloodied photos from Anderson's phone to prove he was the teen's killer. One deleted image recovered by detectives captured Anderson holding Robinson's chopped-off right breast, described as 'his trophy' by one juror. 'This is his trophy in a way,' juror Melissa Blascoe told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. 'Those pictures will be in my mind for quite some time.' 7 Sade Robinson was brutally murdered and dismembered by Maxwell Anderson after their date on April 1, 2024. Sade Robinson/Facebook Along with the leg that matched Robinson's DNA, authorities also found additional body parts, including a foot and human flesh scattered throughout the city. Her right breast is among other parts of her body that haven't been recovered. The jury was provided with additional evidence after the hearing that Anderson and Robinson were inside his home the night she was murdered when her killer turned on the Netflix animated series 'Love, Death & Robots.' In the second season finale, a dismembered corpse is discovered on the beach, similar to Robinson's body. 'I was like, oh, … that's disgusting because that could have been where he got some of his ideas or fantasies,' Blascoe told the outlet. 7 Prosecutors provide evidence pictures to the courtroom including a knife and sheath. AP 7 Maxwell Anderson arrives to court wearing an orange prisoner jumpsuit on April 22, 2024. AP Police found a 'sex dungeon' in Anderson's home after his arrest. In his basement, the creep had 'a sex sling, restraints and handcuffs,' a police source told the Post last April. Other photos on Anderson's phone included pictures of the college student inside his home, described as graphic and disturbing. 'That was pretty damning evidence that shook everyone,' Blascoe said. 'I physically felt like I was gonna throw up at that point. I know a lot of people were shaking and crying.' Some of the photos captured Anderson groping Robinson as she lay face down on his couch. Prosecutors said Robinson was incapacitated at that point and could not have resisted. She said the photos were a turning point in the trials as they physically put Robinson inside the home of her soon-to-be killer. After the brutal killing, Anderson drove Robinson's 2020 Honda Civic around Milwaukee for some time before parking it in North Milwaukee and lighting it on fire. 'He was just making circles around the city and probably just kind of panicking,' Blascoe said. It took the jury 45 minutes to reach a guilty verdict, with the majority of the discussion focusing on the technicalities of the law. 'Everyone agreed pretty early on in the morning that he was guilty,' juror Melissa Blascoe told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. 7 Body parts belonging to Sade Robinson were discovered scattered around Milwaukee in the days after her death. Sheena Scarbrough/Facebook 7 Security footage captured Sade Robinson leaving her apartment building on April 1, 2024. AP The pack of 15 jurors debated on the type of homicide Anderson committed – intentional or reckless. He was ultimately found guilty of first-degree intentional homicide, mutilating a corpse, hiding a corpse and arson. Robinson was remembered by her family, who attended the hearing Friday. 'She will forever be remembered as an angel,' said Sheena Scarbrough, Robinson's mother said outside the courthouse. 'My baby solved her own case. That's how I raised my kids. We don't give up. We are fighters. I demanded justice. I stand tall, I stand affirmative. Sade will continue to walk with me daily and right beside me.' 7 Anderson faces a mandatory life sentence, but Judge Laura Crivello could sentence him to additional extended supervision. AP Anderson is believed to have planned Robinson's killing for months, creating a space covered in a plastic tarp. 'He intended to kill Sade Robinson,' a police source recalled Anderson telling him, according to Fox 6 Milwaukee. No motive for the killing was revealed during the trial. Anderson is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 15. He faces a mandatory life sentence, but Judge Laura Crivello could sentence him to additional extended supervision. With Post wires
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Yahoo
A timeline of Milwaukee college student's murder; some remains washed up on Illinois beach
Jurors on June 6 found Maxwell Anderson guilty of four charges in the death of 19-year-old Sade Robinson. The verdict in Milwaukee County Circuit Court came more than a year after Milwaukee and the country discovered that the missing college student had been killed and her body dismembered and spread across the area. 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 Milwaukee Area Technical College 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 officers 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. He has pleaded not guilty to all counts and remains in jail on $5 million bail. The Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office says it's 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-lined 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 to 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, Sheena 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. 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. The trial is expected to last up to two weeks. Anderson, 34, is charged with first-degree intentional homicide, mutilation of a corpse, hiding a corpse and arson. Opening statements began at 8:45 a.m. and the jury was dismissed for the day at 4:48 p.m. after hearing from several witnesses and reviewing evidence, like video footage from a park where Robinson's severed leg was found. The state rested its case after seven days of testimony from more than 65 witnesses and the admission of more than 300 pieces of evidence. After the defense rested its case without calling any witnesses, the jury began deliberations for about 10 minutes until Judge Laura Crivello sent it home for the day. After another approximately 30 minutes of deliberation, the jury found Anderson guilty of all charges. Anderson's sentencing hearing was scheduled for 10 a.m. Aug. 15. Wisconsin doesn't have the death penalty, but Anderson faces a mandatory life sentence. There's a possibility he could serve part of the sentence in prison and later be eligible for extended supervision, but that will be decided by a judge. This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Sade Robinson murder and dismemberment case: timeline of events
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Yahoo
What happened to Sade Robinson? A timeline of the 19-year-old's murder and dismemberment case
Jurors on June 6 found Maxwell Anderson guilty of four charges in the death of 19-year-old Sade Robinson. The verdict in Milwaukee County Circuit Court came more than a year after Milwaukee and the country discovered that the missing college student had been killed and her body dismembered and spread across the area. 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 Milwaukee Area Technical College 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 officers 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. He has pleaded not guilty to all counts and remains in jail on $5 million bail. The Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office says it's 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-lined 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 to 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, Sheena 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. 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. The trial is expected to last up to two weeks. Anderson, 34, is charged with first-degree intentional homicide, mutilation of a corpse, hiding a corpse and arson. Opening statements began at 8:45 a.m. and the jury was dismissed for the day at 4:48 p.m. after hearing from several witnesses and reviewing evidence, like video footage from a park where Robinson's severed leg was found. The state rested its case after seven days of testimony from more than 65 witnesses and the admission of more than 300 pieces of evidence. After the defense rested its case without calling any witnesses, the jury began deliberations for about 10 minutes until Judge Laura Crivello sent it home for the day. After another approximately 30 minutes of deliberation, the jury found Anderson guilty of all charges. Anderson's sentencing hearing was scheduled for 10 a.m. Aug. 15. Wisconsin doesn't have the death penalty, but Anderson faces a mandatory life sentence. There's a possibility he could serve part of the sentence in prison and later be eligible for extended supervision, but that will be decided by a judge. This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Sade Robinson murder and dismemberment case: timeline of events
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Yahoo
Maxwell Anderson case goes to jury after seven days of testimony
A jury is weighing the fate of Maxwell Anderson who is charged with killing and dismembering Sade Robinson. Anderson, 34, is charged with first-degree intentional homicide, mutilation of a corpse, hiding a corpse and arson in the April 2024 death of Robinson, 19, after they went on a first date in Milwaukee. Prosecutors urged jurors to consider the totality of the evidence, while the defense argued the state had failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Anderson had killed Robinson. Assistant District Attorney Ian Vance-Curzan told jurors to use "common sense and search for the truth." He described Robinson as "anything and everything" that someone that age would want to be. She worked two jobs, went to Milwaukee Area Technical College, supported herself and lived in a small studio apartment on the city's east side. "Most of all, she was respected and loved by her family," Vance-Curzan said. Defense Attorney Anthony Cotton argued there were holes in the prosecution's story, and there was no weapon found or clear DNA evidence to back up the state's claims that Anderson killed Robinson in his home. "I'm not here to hide a thing," Cotton said. "Study it all. Study every piece of evidence in this case." The state admitted more than 300 pieces of evidence and called more than 65 witnesses. The defense did not call any. The trial has featured hours of testimony from investigators and technical experts to describe and explain phone data, security footage and physical evidence recovered during the investigation into Robinson's disappearance and death. Among the witnesses in the trial's final days were a former girlfriend of Anderson's and a former tenant. News media was instructed not to identify either witness. The former girlfriend said she had dated Anderson from May 2022 to March 2023. The woman said she contacted police when she saw news of Anderson's arrest. She testified he was sometimes 'emotionally abusive,' but never physically harmed her. She recalled an incident in which Anderson got into a fistfight with her previous boyfriend at a bar on St. Patrick's Day 2022. She also testified there were multiple hidden compartments throughout Anderson's home, including a false bottom in a drawer under the bathroom sink. The former tenant said he did not hear anything amiss in the home on the evening of April 1, 2024 — no screams, struggles or loud tools. This was out of the norm because Anderson often made noise that could be heard throughout the house, the tenant said. Anderson had loud visitors over in the early morning hours 'all the time' and operated power tools for his woodworking several times a month, the tenant said. The tenant said he heard Anderson moving a heavy object down the stairs between 5 and 6 a.m. one morning that week, but could not recall which day. It was sometime before April 4, 2024, when a SWAT team swarmed the home, the tenant said. Throughout his closing argument, Vance-Curzan used a digital presentation of surveillance footage and phone data to walk the jury through Robinson's final days. Vance-Curzan emphasized several facts: the photos showing Robinson incapacitated found on Anderson's cell phone data and that were deleted; the two's DNA found on a sweater he was wearing the day after their date ; and that the backpack he is seen wearing on bus security footage has never been found. He recounted the gruesome details of Robinson's death to try to prove intent. "What kind of person cuts off someone's head off? A killer, a killer who's trying get away with killing," Vance-Curzan said. "There is no question about the person responsible for doing it. The killer, it's him." Cotton, in his closing, hammered on the lack of DNA evidence found in Anderson's house. "None of Sade's blood is anywhere in that home," Cotton said. Once the attorneys finished their closing arguments, Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Laura Crivello dismissed jurors and asked them to start deliberations. She had earlier given the jury instructions. If the jury is not satisfied that Anderson is guilty of first-degree intentional homicide, they can still convict him of the less serious offense of first-degree reckless homicide. The verdict must be unanimous. If jurors cannot agree on a verdict, then a hung jury is declared, and the case may be retried. There is no time limit on deliberation, and jurors can deliberate anywhere from hours to weeks to decide a verdict. "You jurors are the judges of the credibility of the witnesses and the weight of the evidence," Crivello said. Maia Pandey, Ariela Lopez and Ashley Luthern of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this article. This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Jury to decide Maxwell Anderson case, charged in Sade Robinson's death
