MILWAUKEE — Witness testimony continued Thursday on day three of the Maxwell Anderson murder trial. He is accused of killing and dismembering Sade Robinson last year after a first date.
On Wednesday, opening statements were made, and the first witnesses took the stand.
Jurors heard testimony from a total of 11 witnesses during the second day of the trial. That includes the man who found Sade Robinson's severed leg. Prosecutors also showed body camera footage, surveillance video, and phone records.
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Attorney Jillian Scheidegger, who will be featured on TMJ4 News during the trial coverage, said prosecutors spent the second day building the foundation for the state’s case by following the timeline from opening statements and using brief witness testimony to establish key facts.
Watch: Attorney breaks down evidence highlighted in opening statements in Maxwell Anderson trial
“I think what we saw a lot of yesterday was the beginning of kind of laying the foundation for the state's case,” Scheidegger said. “You saw really consistent with the timeline that they laid out in their opening statement, just kind of walking through each little bit of the ultimate investigation that played out, and some of it was, you know, very short witnesses, but it's important to establish some of the facts to be able to get the whole cohesive story together.”
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Scheidegger added that the defense argues that, while extensive data was presented Wednesday, it does not definitively prove Anderson’s guilt.
“What the defense perspective is, there's a lot of information out here, but all we know is that there are cellphones pinging at certain locations. There's all of this video surveillance, but it doesn't specifically show who is in this car,” Scheidegger said. “It just shows the car traveling throughout the city. So I think it's, you know, a bit difficult to ascertain what exactly this evidence is going to show.”
Scheidegger added that throughout the trial, both parties will likely focus on the interpretation and impact of technological and surveillance evidence in the case.
“There’s discussion about hundreds of hours of this between phone evidence and the video surveillance taken throughout the city,” Scheidegger said. “So I think it's incredibly important, especially for the state, who's trying to really build a circumstantial case overall, and then the defense is going to say, well, this doesn't really prove anything in terms of consequence, of fact, for proving the burden of beyond a reasonable doubt.”
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