Sade Carleena Robinson Case: Trial, Sentence, and Foundation

The Sade Carleena Robinson case is the 2024 Milwaukee murder of a 19-year-old college student who was killed and dismembered by 33-year-old Maxwell Anderson after a first date on April 1, 2024; Anderson was convicted of first-degree intentional homicide, mutilating a corpse, and arson in June 2025 and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on August 1, 2025.¹

Who Sade Robinson Was

Robinson was a criminal justice student at Milwaukee Area Technical College, on track to graduate with honors in May 2024. She worked two jobs, one at Pizza Shuttle and another at the Wisconsin Country Club.² Her mother, Sheena Scarbrough, later described her as a “light” who “touched so many people.”³ MATC awarded Robinson a posthumous associate in arts degree at its May 2024 commencement at Fiserv Forum. Her mother and sister accepted the degree wearing pink graduation caps in honor of her favorite color.

What Happened on April 1, 2024

Robinson had met Anderson only a few days earlier, when she walked into the bar where he worked looking for a job. They met up at 5:00 p.m. after her Pizza Shuttle shift, first at the Twisted Fisherman restaurant on West Canal Street, then at Duke’s on Water, where surveillance caught them playing beer pong. They left together around 9:00 p.m.⁴

Robinson drove to Anderson’s home on Milwaukee’s south side, arriving about 9:30 p.m. according to data from her Life360 location-tracking app. Her phone left Anderson’s residence around 12:30 a.m. on April 2 and arrived at Warnimont Park in Cudahy at 2:53 a.m., where it went dead.⁴ Prosecutors said Anderson killed Robinson at his home, then transported her body to Warnimont Park, where he dismembered her.⁵ Later that day, he set her car on fire near 30th Street and Lisbon Avenue on Milwaukee’s north side.⁶

Where Her Remains Were Found

Robinson’s remains surfaced over several weeks across southeastern Wisconsin and into Illinois. A pedestrian found a severed leg at Warnimont Park along the Lake Michigan shoreline on April 2, 2024. Additional remains turned up near 31st and Galena streets in Milwaukee between April 5 and 7, in the vicinity of the burned car.⁶ A torso and arm washed ashore in South Milwaukee on April 18.⁷ On May 11, a human arm was found on a beach in Waukegan, Illinois; DNA testing confirmed it as Robinson’s.⁸

Robinson’s head was never recovered, a point her family raised repeatedly throughout the proceedings.⁹

How Investigators Identified Maxwell Anderson

Milwaukee County Sheriff’s detectives opened the case when Robinson failed to show up for her next Pizza Shuttle shift.⁴ Her Life360 data pinning her phone at Anderson’s residence and then at Warnimont Park gave them the basis for a search warrant.¹⁰

When they searched Anderson’s home on April 4, investigators found blood on bedding and on walls leading toward the basement, gasoline containers in the garage, 51 knives and an axe in the kitchen, a gun, and the T-shirt Anderson had worn on the date.¹¹ Robinson’s purse and the clothing she had worn on the date, found inside-out with underwear still attached, were recovered from the trunk of her burned car. The driver’s seat had been pushed back for someone at least six feet tall, ruling Robinson out as the last person to drive it.⁴

A key break came from Anderson’s ex-girlfriend, Chloe Wright. She told investigators about a “secret beach” Anderson was intensely protective of, refusing to name it and giving only step-by-step directions so she could never return alone. She led detectives to it. The location was Warnimont Park, the same site where Robinson’s severed leg had been found. Wright also disclosed that Anderson had sent her an Instagram message reading “Ignore time is over” just five hours before he met Robinson at the bar.⁴ Anderson was arrested that same day, April 4, 2024, during a traffic stop near 38th Street and Lakefield Drive.⁶

Anderson’s Prior Record

Anderson had a documented record of legal trouble stretching back a decade. In 2014, he was convicted of disorderly conduct in Delafield and of a first drunk driving offense in Waukesha County. In 2015, after breaking items and threatening relatives in Egg Harbor, he pleaded guilty to criminal damage to property, intimidating a witness, and disorderly conduct classified as domestic abuse, and received a year of probation.¹²

In 2019, a Milwaukee battery charge was dismissed after he pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct, drawing probation, community service, and more than $7,000 in restitution. In 2022, he picked up a second drunk driving citation with a blood alcohol level of .145, plus a suspended-license citation in Ozaukee County. Probation records noted positive tests for cocaine, THC, and alcohol.¹²

The Trial and Verdict

The Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office charged Anderson on April 12, 2024, with first-degree intentional homicide, mutilating a corpse, and arson of property other than a building.¹¹ A fourth count, hiding a corpse, was later added.

Jury selection began on May 27, 2025, with testimony running into early June. No murder weapon was ever recovered, and the exact manner of death could not be established, so prosecutors built the case on circumstantial and digital evidence.¹³ Jurors saw surveillance footage from the restaurants, from Anderson’s neighbor’s home camera, and from a bus camera that captured him after the car fire, along with the Life360 data and the clothing pulled from Robinson’s burned vehicle.¹

On the final day of testimony, June 5, 2025, jurors were shown previously deleted photos recovered from Anderson’s phone. The images depicted Robinson partially undressed and face-down on a couch in Anderson’s home, with Anderson holding her right breast while she appeared incapacitated.¹⁴ A detective testified it was unclear whether Robinson was alive or dead in the images. Investigators also found a screenshot on the phone with the text “what not to mix with bleach.”¹⁵ Juror Melissa Blascoe later called the photos the “turning point” of the trial and described one image as a “trophy.”

Anderson did not testify. His attorney, Anthony Cotton, called no witnesses and argued in closing that nothing in the surveillance footage suggested a planned intentional homicide.⁵ On June 6, 2025, the jury of nine women and three men deliberated for about 20 minutes before returning guilty verdicts on all four counts.¹³

The Sentence

Milwaukee County Judge Laura Crivello sentenced Anderson on August 1, 2025, imposing life without the possibility of parole for the first-degree intentional homicide, plus seven and a half years for mutilation and a year and a half for arson, all consecutive.¹ She dismissed the hiding-a-corpse conviction after a defense motion, citing Wisconsin law that bars conviction for both mutilating and hiding a corpse.⁹

Judge Crivello called the case one of the worst homicides she had seen. “I have to look at whether you’re remorseful, and I don’t think you’re remorseful in any way,” she told Anderson. “I don’t think that you have gotten to the point of taking any form of responsibility for what transpired.”⁹ Cotton had asked for parole eligibility after 25 years, citing Anderson’s Navy service and what he described as “obvious mental health issues”; the judge rejected the request.¹⁶ Anderson maintained his innocence, telling a pre-sentence investigator that Robinson had been “abducted outside his home.”¹⁷

Robinson’s mother, father, and sister each addressed the court. Sheena Scarbrough demanded that Anderson reveal where the rest of her daughter’s remains were. Adrianna Reams, Robinson’s sister, told the court she had quit her job because she could not return to the workplace she had shared with her sister.¹⁸

Anderson filed a notice of intent to pursue post-conviction relief on August 5, 2025, four days after sentencing; Cotton said he would not be handling the appeal.¹⁹ In October 2025, the court ordered Anderson to pay $92,896.09 in restitution, divided among Robinson’s mother ($36,583.71), father ($17,676.52), sister ($775), and the Victim Compensation Program ($37,960.86), with any prison wages directed toward that obligation.²⁰

Civil Lawsuits Filed by the Family

Robinson’s estate and mother filed a wrongful death suit against Anderson in June 2024, seeking damages and all proceeds from the sale of Anderson’s home. The complaint alleged that Anderson’s family entered his residence after the murder, discarded items, and sold the property to conceal evidence.²¹ The case was paused during the criminal trial and moved back toward depositions after the conviction.²²

In early April 2025, the family filed a separate suit against Twisted Fisherman, LLC, and Duke’s On Water, Inc. The complaint alleges both establishments served Robinson multiple alcoholic drinks, including shots and hard liquor, without checking her identification, despite her being 19 and under Wisconsin’s legal drinking age. It contends staff should have observed signs of impairment such as slurred speech and loss of balance, and that the bars’ negligence left Robinson “physically and mentally vulnerable” and “defenseless.”²³ The family seeks unspecified damages for wrongful death, negligence, and emotional distress.²⁴

Memorial, Foundation, and Legislation

A February 2025 resolution by Milwaukee County Supervisor Juan Miguel Martinez to install a memorial for Robinson at Warnimont Park was withdrawn after her mother and local officials received what Martinez described as a “flurry of racist emails” questioning why resources were being directed toward memorializing a Black victim. Multiple co-sponsors asked to have their names removed. County officials said they would look for other ways to honor her.²⁵

Sheena Scarbrough founded the Sade’s Voice Foundation to support families of missing persons and crime victims, growing partly out of her frustration with law enforcement’s failure to notify her immediately when her daughter went missing.³ She has since pushed for state legislation on violence against Black women and girls.¹⁸

State Representative Shelia Stubbs of Madison has introduced legislation three times to create a 17-member state task force on missing and murdered Black women and girls. The current version, SB 404, would examine systemic causes of violence, improve data collection, review law enforcement policies on missing person investigations, and develop resources for victims’ families. A previous version passed the Wisconsin Assembly unanimously in committee but stalled in the Senate.²⁶ The bill received a public hearing before a Senate committee in December 2025 and would allocate funding for a Department of Justice coordinator position, with a final report due by 2027.²⁷

1
CNN. Maxwell Anderson Sentencing for Sade Robinson Murder
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WISN. Family of Sade Robinson Accepts Posthumous MATC Degree in 19-Year-Old’s Honor
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WTMJ. Sade Robinson’s Mother Speaks Out Before Sentencing
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CBS News. Sade Robinson and the Secret Beach
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WPR. Jury Finds Maxwell Anderson Guilty of Killing and Dismembering Sade Robinson
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WISN. Milwaukee Sade Robinson Homicide Timeline
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WISN. Milwaukee Sade Robinson Remains Lake Michigan
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FOX6 Now. Sade Robinson Arm Found Waukegan Illinois
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WPR. Maxwell Anderson Life Sentence for Murder of Sade Robinson
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WISN. Maxwell Anderson Trial Live Updates
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NY1. Criminal Complaint, State of Wisconsin v. Maxwell S. Anderson
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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. What We Know About Maxwell Anderson’s Previous Legal Issues
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WISN. Maxwell Anderson Verdict Live Updates
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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Maxwell Anderson Played Netflix Show the Night He Killed Sade Robinson
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FOX6 Now. Maxwell Anderson Trial, Sade Robinson Killed
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FOX 11. Maxwell Anderson Sentenced for Sade Robinson Murder
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FOX6 Now. Sade Robinson Killed, Maxwell Anderson Sentencing
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Capital B News. Sade Robinson Killer Sentenced to Life
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FOX6 Now. Maxwell Anderson Life Prison Sentence Appeal
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TMJ4. Maxwell Anderson Returns to Court for Restitution Following Life Term
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Star Courier. Sade Robinson Murder Dismemberment Case Timeline
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WISN. Sade Robinson’s Family Seeks Justice Through Civil Suits
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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Sade Robinson’s Family Sues 2 Milwaukee Bars, Claims They Over-Served Her
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TMJ4. Family of Sade Robinson Sues Bars for Overserving Before Her Death
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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Milwaukee County Withdraws Sade Robinson Memorial After Racist Emails
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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Sade Robinson Mother Seeks Legislation on Missing, Killed Black Women
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Wisconsin Examiner. Bill to Examine Disappearance and Murders of Black Women and Girls Receives Public Hearing