A Milwaukee man has been found guilty of killing and dismembering a 19-year-old college student on their first date.
On Friday, June 6, 2025, Maxwell Anderson, 34, was convicted of first-degree intentional homicide, dismembering a corpse, arson and hiding a corpse in connection with the April 2024 death of Sade Carleena Robinson, the Associated Press (AP) and local outlet TMJ4 News reported.
Investigators alleged that Anderson was on a first date with Robinson when he killed her and spread her remains around Milwaukee County. He is also believed to have burned her car to destroy evidence, per AP.
“I want to express our deepest sympathy to the family and loved ones who knew Sade Robinson,” an official said during a press conference held by the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office. “We are hopeful that this verdict brings some amount of solace to them.
During closing arguments on Thursday, June 5, Assistant District Attorney Ian Vance-Curzan said Anderson, who was 33 years old at the time, met with Robinson at a bar a week before she went missing, AP reported.
Vance-Curzan told jurors that surveillance video and cell phone records put Anderson and Robinson together during the late afternoon and early evening of April 1. The pair drank at two different bars before going back to his apartment.
According to the assistant district attorney, per AP, authorities recovered photos from Anderson’s phone that showed him groping Robinson as she lay face down on his couch. The prosecutor described the victim as incapacitated, saying she was not able to resist.
Sade Robinson
Video footage showed her vehicle leave his apartment during the early hours of April 2 and arriving at a park near the shores of Lake Michigan.
Vance-Curzan alleged that Anderson used the darkness to obscure cut her body up without being seen, according to AP. He then took a bus back to his apartment.
An informant previously told Milwaukee authorities that Anderson had allegedly shown him the murder location and tools about a month before the killing, per the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Anderson allegedly gave the individual a detailed plan of how he intended to carry out the killing of Robinson, telling the informant he had recently met the teen, according to unsealed warrants.
The informant claimed that when visiting Anderson’s apartment, a tarp was covering the windows and walls from the floor to the ceiling.
However, during June 5’s closing arguments, Anderson’s attorney, Tony Cotton, said prosecutors never showed his client had any intent to kill Robinson.
Additionally, Cotton claimed none of Anderson’s neighbors reported hearing a struggle at his residence. He also said his client made no attempts to conceal his identity when taking the bus, nor did he have muddy or bloodstained clothing in surveillance footage.
Anderson will face a mandatory life sentence in prison when he’s sentenced on Aug. 15, 2025.
