Background: Maxwell Anderson and his attorney Anthony Cotton in court on Friday, May 30, 2025 (WITI/YouTube). Inset: Sade Robinson (Milwaukee Police Department).
A defense attorney for a Wisconsin man on trial for murdering a 19-year-old woman on their first date and chopping her body up says his family has received death threats, warning how they will be killed if he doesn’t walk away from the case, according to police.
“It is uncalled for and unacceptable,” said Maxwell Anderson’s attorney, Anthony Cotton, in a statement to local NBC affiliate WTMJ on Friday.
Anderson, 34, is charged with first-degree intentional homicide, mutilation of a corpse, and arson of property other than a building for allegedly killing Sade Robinson last year.
The Waukesha Police Department told Fox affiliate WITI that someone called Cotton’s local law office recently and made threats to kill members of his family if he does not drop the Anderson case.
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As previously reported by Law&Crime, an investigation was launched in April 2024 after someone found a human leg in the water at Warnimont Park in Cudahy, just south of Milwaukee. A joint probe between the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office and Milwaukee Police Department determined that Robinson’s family reported her missing the day before, when she failed to show up for work.
According the criminal complaint, he and Robinson met for the first time on April 1, 2024, to go out on a date. Detectives allegedly obtained text messages of the two planning their meetup earlier in the day and surveillance video shows them at a downtown Milwaukee restaurant and bar before they leave in Robinson’s Honda Civic and head to Anderson’s home, per the complaint.
An app on Robinson’s phone shows it left Anderson’s residence shortly after midnight on April 2, 2024, and later traveled to Warnimont Park, where the victim’s leg was found, according to the complaint. Surveillance video from the park shows a Honda Civic ramming through a gate at around 3 a.m. and someone is seen going down to the water several times before leaving around 4:30 a.m.
At around 7:30 a.m., the Milwaukee Fire Department responded to the 1800 block of 29th Street for a vehicle fire and investigators later determined it was Robinson’s Honda. Cops recovered surveillance video from a bus that shows Anderson getting on the bus near where the vehicle was torched and riding to a stop near his home, according to the complaint.
Police found a foot and human flesh not far from the burned-out Honda on April 6, 2024. They were confirmed to belong to Robinson.
A search of Anderson’s home found blood in a bedroom and on the walls leading to the basement, according to the complaint.
In the basement, investigators found a “sex dungeon,” local ABC affiliate WISN reported.
“I understand that people have strong feelings about this case. I sympathize with that, and my heart goes out to everyone affected by this tragedy,” Cotton told WTMJ.
But he also feels it’s wrong for someone’s family to be threatened “for doing what the Constitution demands — providing a defense in even the hardest of cases,” he said.
The first week of Anderson’s trial wrapped up Friday after prosecutors presented cellphone data and other evidence tracing Robinson’s last movements, including video footage. They also recounted her final day alive and provided details from the grim discovery or her remains, sparking gasps in the courtroom, according to CBS affiliate WDJT,
“Three separate human remains,” said Detective Casey Donahue, recalling in photos how one of the “larger” sections was covered when he arrived on scene by a tarp but still had Robinson’s foot hanging out, WDJT reports.
“The medical examiner moved to the tarp and now revealed that it was a human leg, which appeared to be severed above the knee and at the ankle,” Sgt. Cassandra Lindert testified.
Anderson’s trial is expected to last for at least another week.
David Harris contributed to this report.
