Jury finds Maxwell Anderson guilty of killing and dismembering 19-year-old Sade Robinson

Maxwell Anderson has been found guilty of killing and dismembering 19-year-old Sade Robinson while the two were on a first date last year.

The jury in Milwaukee found Anderson guilty on all counts Friday, including first-degree intentional homicide, mutilating a corpse, hiding a corpse and arson.

Opening statements began in the trial last week.

The case went to the jury Thursday afternoon. It deliberated for around 20 minutes before heading home for the night. The jury was back in court Friday morning and announced it had reached a verdict shortly after 9 a.m.

Outside of the courthouse Friday morning, Robinson’s mother, Sheena Scarbrough, said her daughter was a hero.

“She will be forever remembered as an angel,” Scarbrough said.

“Throughout all of this, throughout the grief and everything, Sade continues to talk to me, to guide me. And her mission is still wanting to help others,” she added.

Robinson went missing after she went out to dinner and drinks with Anderson on April 1, 2024. Milwaukee County Assistant District Attorney Ian Vance-Curzan told the jury during in his opening statement that it would see phone records and video surveillance footage that proved Anderson killed Robinson after the two met for dinner in Milwaukee on that date.

During his closing argument Thursday, Vance-Curzan told the jury Robinson was killed at Anderson’s home on Milwaukee’s south side. He said Anderson then mutilated and dismembered Robinson at Warnimont Park in Cudahy, the site where one of Robinson’s legs was found.

The jury saw “hundreds” of images and videos and heard from dozens of witnesses, Vance-Curzan said during his closing argument.

“The evidence in this case has shown you, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the individual responsible for those intentional acts is Maxwell Anderson,” Vance-Curzan told them.

The two met at Twisted Fisherman on April 1, 2024. Video footage from the restaurant shows them getting dinner and drinks. After that, phone records and video surveillance footage found they went to a bar in downtown Milwaukee and then later to Anderson’s home on the city’s south side.

There were photos Anderson took of Robinson that show her “incapacitated” on Anderson’s couch, Vance-Curzan said during the closing argument.

“She is face down,” Vance-Curzan said about the photos. “Her face is buried in his couch cushion. He has her breast exposed, and he is grabbing her, grabbing her right breast — the breast that would later be cut off of her body.”

In the days and weeks Robinson was reported missing, her body parts — including both of her legs, her right arm, torso and right breast — were found at sites across the Milwaukee region.

Vance-Curzan said Anderson later drove Robinson’s body in her car to Warnimont Park in Cudahy on the morning of April 2.

“This is the time, ladies and gentlemen, where he (Anderson) is cutting up her body,” Vance-Curzan said. “She is dead. Now it’s time for him to get rid of her.”

Robinson’s right arm washed ashore in Waukegan, Illinois on May 11, 2024, according to Vance-Curzan. Her severed leg was found by someone walking next to the lake in Warnimont Park in Cudahy on the night of April 2, 2024. In a criminal complaint, police said they believed the leg appeared to be “sawn off.” 

After he dismembered her body at the park, Vance-Curzan said Anderson drove Robinson’s car to the north side of Milwaukee, where he lit the car on fire in order to try and cover his tracks.

“You saw the video of him walking away from the burning car — where we now know from the crime lab, he used an ignitable petroleum distillate to light the car on fire — and he walks away,” Vance-Curzan said during his closing argument.

Anderson did not testify during the trial. His defense team did not present any witnesses.

During his closing argument, Anderson’s defense attorney Anthony Cotton said his client had no intent to kill Robinson.

“There’s nothing in the videos that you’ve seen that suggests that Max is planning to do anything like an intentional homicide,” Cotton said during his closing argument.

Outside of the courthouse, Cotton said he respected Anderson’s choice to not testify.

“That’s a personal decision for him,” Cotton said.

Anderson’s sentencing hearing has been set for Aug. 15.

Robinson was attending Milwaukee Area Technical College and working at Pizza Shuttle, a restaurant on Milwaukee’s east side. A GoFundMe page set up for her family describes her as a “loving daughter, a cherished sister, and a dear friend to many.”