Maxwell Anderson, the convicted killer of 19-year-old Sade Robinson, has been transferred from Dodge Correctional Institution to an unknown, out-of-state prison.
Online records from the Wisconsin Department of Corrections show Anderson was transferred out of state Sept. 17 after spending just over a month in Dodge Correctional Institution in Waupun.
The Waupun prison is a maximum-security institution that serves as a central reception center for all adult male inmates sentenced to prison. Records show Anderson moved there Aug. 4, three days after his sentencing.
WTMJ in Milwaukee first reported that the out-of-state transfer had been requested by Anderson’s defense attorney, Anthony Cotton. Cotton said he does not know which state or prison Anderson was moved to.
Cotton said he reached out to Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ office a month before Anderson was sentenced, knowing his safety would be at risk in Wisconsin.
Cotton told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Sept. 21 that the decision to transfer a prisoner out of state has to be made at the executive level, but it’s unclear whether the governor or if DOC Secretary Jared Hoy, a member of his Cabinet, approved it.
In Cotton’s understanding, the state of Wisconsin swapped Anderson with another inmate from the other state. The Journal Sentinel reached out to a spokeswoman for Evers but did not immediately hear back.
After a nearly two-week-long trial, a Milwaukee County jury found Anderson, a 34-year-old former bartender, guilty on all counts on June 6, including first-degree intentional homicide and mutilating a corpse, in connection to Robinson’s killing.
Anderson is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. He has begun the process of appealing his conviction.
While Cotton is not representing Anderson in his appeal, he noted the case could face delays depending on where Anderson is located and the logistics of traveling for an appointed public defender.
Robinson was just weeks away from graduating from Milwaukee Area Technical College when she was killed.
Her mother, Sheena Scarbrough, is seeking damages from Anderson for emotional distress and has pushed for legislation to create a task force for missing and murdered Black women and girls.
(This story was updated to add new information.)
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Maxwell Anderson, serving life in prison for killing Sade Robinson, has been moved to out-of-state prison
Reporting by Drake Bentley and Hope Karnopp, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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