Sheena Scarbrough comments after Maxwell Anderson’s guilty verdict
The mother of Sade Robinson, Sheena Scarbrough, comments immediately following Maxwell Anderson’s guilty verdict on Friday, June 6, 2025.
On the eve of Maxwell Anderson‘s sentencing, his attorney states Anderson maintains his innocence in connection to killing and dismembering Milwaukee college student Sade Robinson in 2024, and requests his client should be eligible to seek parole in 25 years.
That’s according to an eight-page sentencing memorandum filed late on July 31 in Milwaukee County Circuit Court by Anthony D. Cotton, Anderson’s attorney.
The report goes on to say that, when asked by a pre-sentence investigator about Robinson’s family, Anderson, 34, “became emotional” and said he “respected the immense loss the family must feel” and he “understood their hatred toward him.”
Robinson, 19, worked at a pizza restaurant on Milwaukee’s east side and was just weeks away from graduating from Milwaukee Area Technical College with a criminal justice degree. Then she met Anderson for a date on April 1, 2024.
Anderson, however, continues to maintain he didn’t commit the crimes for which a jury convicted him, Cotton wrote in the report.
In the memorandum, Cotton argued that despite wrestling with mental health challenges (a traumatic brain injury he suffered at the age of 3, leaving him with ADHD, anxiety and depression), Anderson has the “capacity for growth” and is committed to “better himself as much as he can.”
Allowing Anderson to seek parole, “allows the Department of Corrections and the Parole Commission, many years in the future, to evaluate who Mr. Anderson has become − not just who he was when this crime occurred,” Cotton wrote.
Getting to Anderson’s sentencing day by the court is the crescendo of a lengthy and emotional legal odyssey that captivated many in Milwaukee and the rest of Wisconsin. Anderson’s murder touched off months of heartbreaking demonstrations, marches and vigils. Images of Robinson, with her distinctive bright eyes and wide smile, became a fixture on billboards, posters and digital media screens all over the state.
It’s a foregone conclusion Anderson, 34, will be ordered to spend the rest of his life in prison during his Aug. 1 sentencing hearing.
A jury convicted Anderson on June 6 of first-degree intentional homicide, mutilation of a corpse and arson in Robinson’s disappearance and slaying. Wisconsin law calls for life in prison for a defendant found guilty of first-degree intentional homicide, especially those with criminal enhancements.
That means the only thing Circuit Court Judge Laura Crivello will determine is whether Anderson will ever be eligible for parole, or even able to ask for it at any point during his imprisonment. Cotton’s sentencing memorandum provides insight into the information he will share with the court.
The sentencing hearing begins at 8:30 a.m., in courtroom 620 of the Milwaukee County Safety Building.
Here’s what happened the night Sade Robinson went missing
Robinson and Anderson first went to the Twisted Fisherman, a popular tavern and eatery on Canal Street. Anderson once worked there as a bartender.
He convinced her to meet her there so he could pick up his W-2 form.
They later went to Duke’s on Water, another downtown night spot on Water Street.
Video from inside the bar, which was shown to jurors during Anderson’s trial, shows the pair sitting together and having several drinks and playing beer pong with another couple.
By 9:03 p.m., the pair are seen are walking out of Duke’s and toward Robinson’s car.
It would be the last time she’d be seen alive.
A walker found a leg in Warnimont Park the next day.
More body parts that were later found to belong to Robinson began turning up elsewhere in the days and weeks that followed in the Milwaukee area and washed up on the shores of Lake Michigan in Waukegan, Illinois.
Jurors sat through nine days of grisly testimony and graphic autopsy photos as Assistant District Attorney Ian Vance-Curzan stitched together an eerie timeline of Robinson’s final hours.
The evidence
Vance-Curzan and co-counsel Megan Newport entered more than 600 exhibits and pieces of evidence during the trial to build their case against Anderson.
Robinson’s digital breadcrumbs: Investigators triangulated her phone’s location using data from cell towers as well as an app on Robinson’s phone called Life360. Those data points were mapped out to show the movements of her phone across the city that night. Warnimont Park was one of its last locations before it ran out of battery.
Anderson’s cellphone: Jurors got to see images from inside Anderson’s home that were shot the night of the killing. One of the photos showed Robinson lying face down, and presumably dead, on his couch. In another photo, a hand is seen cupping one of Robinson’s breasts.
Various videos: Milwaukee police and the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office worked together to recover hours of video footage from neighbors’ Ring cameras and surveillance equipment from businesses.
Some footage came from cameras mounted on Milwaukee County Transit System buses, which proved crucial in helping prosecutors piece together Anderson’s final steps after Robinson’s death. In one clip, Anderson is seen walking from between two buildings near 35th Street and Lisbon Avenue. Robinson’s car can be seen in the same frame, burning in the background.
Anderson also will be represented in court by Jason A. Findling.
