Iron County man convicted of murder in Alabama is headed to trial for Green Bay murder.

 

 

GREEN BAY, Wis. (WLUK) – Caleb Anderson was ordered Tuesday in Brown County Circuit Court to stand trial for the Aug. 2022 murder of Patrick Ernst – the second stop of a three-state crime spree which included two murders.

The crime spree Anderson is accused of allegedly started with an assault of an 18-year-old woman in Iron County, Michigan, on Aug. 1, 2022. The next day, he allegedly killed Ernst in an apartment on Green Bay’s west side. From there, Anderson fled to Alabama, where he killed Dwight Dixon before being arrested.

In January, Anderson was sentenced to life without parole in Alabama for that crime. He was extradited to Wisconsin after.

Tuesday, Anderson appeared in Brown County Circuit Court for the alleged murder of Ernst. He waived a preliminary hearing and his arraignment is scheduled for March 26.

Investigators say they checked on Ernst after he didn’t show up for work. They entered his apartment to find it trashed. Officers found Ernst’s body in his bedroom. A forensic pathologist from the Brown County Medical Examiner’s Office counted 38 stab wounds to Ernst’s head, neck and abdomen, along with 12 more to his left hand and arm, with some of those being defensive wounds.

Written on the wall above the body was “Psalm 23:4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me,” along with the date.

A note was written on a piece of paper on a chair, reading, “I Am so Sorry.. he didn’t deserve this.”

Anderson took Ernst’s car and headed to Alabama, police said. He was arrested in Alabama, but not before killing Dixon, whom he said he also met through the smartphone app. Anderson also claimed to have set fire to a church, though he was unable to tell investigators where the church was.

Before the killings in Green Bay and Alabama, Anderson admitted attacking a woman who was jogging in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. He said he thought about sexually assaulting or killing the woman, but then thought of his mother, and decided to let the woman go.