Sade Robinson homicide; Maxwell Anderson trial on track for May
Maxwell Anderson's trial on track for May
A spring trial date is on track for the man accused of killing and dismembering a woman after their first date. Maxwell Anderson appeared in Milwaukee County court on Monday morning, Feb. 10.
MILWAUKEE - A spring trial date is on track for the man accused of killing and dismembering a woman after their first date.
Maxwell Anderson appeared in Milwaukee County court on Monday morning, Feb. 10.
Attorneys said the case is still on track for a May trial date.
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Maxwell Anderson is charged with first-degree intentional homicide, mutilating a corpse and arson of property other than a building. He is accused of killing Robinson after a date – and then dismembering her before dumping her body parts across Milwaukee County in April 2024.
Anderson is due back in court in April for another hearing ahead of the trial.
Surveillance images
The backstory:
Images show Anderson and Robinson showing up at a Menomonee Valley bar and restaurant for a date. The two sat at the bar and later left together. Court filings said the two went to a Water Street bar that night – April 1. It was the last time Robinson's family and friends heard from Sade.
Surveillance of Maxwell Anderson and Sade Robinson
On April 3, someone found a severed leg on the bluff at Warnimont Park in Cudahy. Anderson was pulled over the next day, and a detective noticed a possible blood stain in the car.
Court documents said an autopsy determined Robinson's leg was severed "with a sharp instrument." Robinson's foot later appeared near 30th and Galena – a couple blocks away from where Robinson's burned-out car was found.
Surveillance images showed a man investigators believe is Anderson walking away from the area. He was later seen on a bus heading back to his home on the city's south side.
When police searched Anderson's home, court filings said investigators collected swabs of stains and women's clothing – some hidden in the basement.
Informant's statement
The backstory:
Court filings indicate police met with the information on April 15 – thirteen days after Robinson's leg was found at Warnimont Park in Cudahy, and three days after Anderson was charged in the case.
The informant told police they were at Anderson's home on March 5, according to court filings. Anderson showed the informant his basement, the informant said, including a plastic tarp that covered a sanitation sink, ceiling, floor and walls.
According to the informant's statement in the court filings, Anderson told the informant he "intended to kill Sade Robinson" – using a gun to get her down into the basement. The informant said Anderson then said he "planned on shooting Robinson and then dismember her body in the room" before "disposing Robinson's body throughout the city."
Crime scene tape surrounds Maxwell Anderson's home as investigators conduct a follow-up search in a homicide investigation.
The information told police they saw three saws in the basement and believed those were the saws Anderson intended to use, per the court filings.
The court records obtained Wednesday also indicate another woman went on a date with Anderson in February 2024. That woman said Anderson asked her back to his home and believed he drugged her drink.
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Family responds
What they're saying:
Sade Robinson's family members said the documents make them see the case in a new way.
"After the fact doesn't do me any justice, because it doesn't bring my daughter back," said Carlos Robinson, Sade's father. "Why would this guy feel comfortable to tell you his plans in the first place?
"This fuels my rage knowing that somebody else could have stopped this, and they didn't."
To date, not all of Sade Robinson's body has been found. Some of her remains have been found as far as Waukegan, Illinois.
Additional remains "believed to be" Robinson's were found along the Lake Michigan shore in South Milwaukee on April 18. Searches in and around Milwaukee County have yielded no discoveries since then, and the discovery in Waukegan followed. The first body part found was a human leg, later determined to be Robinson's, near the lake in Cudahy. Additional remains turned up in three separate Milwaukee locations as well.
"You have to be a very demonic individual to do something like this," Robinson said.
Attorney Vernoa Swanigan, who represents Sade's mother, Sheena Scarbrough, said Scarbrough found out about the newly obtained court filings through news coverage.
The Source: FOX6 has been following the homicide of Sade Robinson since it happened, and has been following subsequent court appearances of Maxwell Anderson.