NEED TO KNOW
- Maxwell Anderson was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole after being convicted of killing and dismembering 19-year-old college student Sade Carleena Robinson
- Robinson’s family spoke during the sentencing hearing on Aug. 1, calling Anderson a “demon” and suggesting that “everything that he did should be done to him”
- “My ancestors roll deep,” Robinson’s mother said during the sentencing
Maxwell Anderson, the Milwaukee man who was convicted of killing and dismembering a 19-year-old college student, has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Nearly two months after the 34-year-old man was found guilty on all counts for the killing and dismemberment of Sade Carleena Robinson, Circuit Judge Laura Crivello sentenced him to life in prison with no opportunity to seek parole during his sentencing hearing on Friday, Aug. 1, according to the Associated Press and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
In June, Anderson was convicted by a jury of first-degree intentional homicide, dismembering a corpse, arson and hiding a corpse in connection with the April 2024 death.
Investigators claimed he killed Robinson on a first date and spread her remains around Milwaukee County. His conviction came with a mandatory sentence of life in prison, with the judge revealing the parole decision on Aug. 1.
During the sentencing hearing, Robinson’s mother Sheena Scarbrough referred to Anderson as a “demon” and said he “messed the entire community up.” The teen’s father, Carlos Robinson, also spoke out.
“Everything that he did should be done to him,” Carlos said, per the AP. “No man should be able to live after what he did. That’s just how I feel. I can’t get past this. I can’t.”
While Anderson’s attorney, Anthony Cotton, encouraged the judge to make his client eligible for parole — citing his time in the U.S. Navy and apparent mental health issues — the judge refused.
Anderson also said on Aug. 1 that he hoped “true justice will be delivered” after claiming he was innocent. Per the Sentinel, he claimed he “did not commit these crimes” and that he was planning on appealing the convictions.
Cotton did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
During the sentencing, Crivello called Anderson’s crimes “unconscionable” and said his view of reality “differs from the rest of the world.”
She sentenced him to an additional seven and a half years on the dismemberment charge and a year and a half for arson, while apparently dismissing his count of hiding a corpse after Cotton argued he couldn’t be convicted of that charge and the mutilating charge, according to the AP.
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In June, Assistant District Attorney Ian Vance-Curzan said during the trial’s closing arguments that Anderson, who was 33 years old at the time, met with Robinson at a bar the week before she went missing, per the AP.
Both surveillance video and cell phone records put the two together during the late afternoon and early evening of April 1, Vance-Curzan said, adding that they visited two bars before going back to Anderson’s apartment.
Authorities later discovered photos from Anderson’s phone of him groping Robinson while she lay face down on his couch, as the prosecutor described her as incapacitated, according to the AP.
Video footage also showed Robinson’s vehicle leave Anderson’s apartment on April 2 and arrive at a park near Lake Michigan, where prosectors said Anderson cut the victim’s body up without being seen. An informant also alleged that Anderson provided a detailed plan of how he intended to carry out the killing.
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“My daughter had to cross your demonic path,” Scarbrough said during the Aug. 1 hearing. “You plotted and planned to kill, dismember, then you disrespectfully spread my daughter across Milwaukee like a piece of trash. How dare you?”
“My daughter was everything. She was everything to all of us. … This has affected the world, the community in such extreme ways. There’s no way in hell we should’ve went through this freaking trial that you [dragged] us through. You knew you were guilty.”
Scarbrough also told the convicted killer of her daughter that he could “no longer hurt” her child. “She’s in heaven. She’s protected. We roll deep. My ancestors roll deep. When you touched my daughter, you f—-d with the wrong family,” she said.
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