Man who fatally stabbed Green Bay and Alabama residents sentenced to prison

GREEN BAY — In a rare case, defense attorneys for a Michigan man who murdered a Green Bay man he met on a dating app during a three-day, three-state crime spree in 2022 have asked for a harsher sentence than the one imposed by prosecutors.

Caleb Anderson, 25, killed Patrick Ernst, 65, of Green Bay in August 2022, then drove to Alabama and killed a second man. Anderson pleaded no contest to first-degree intentional homicide in Brown County in August.

During Anderson’s sentencing hearing Monday afternoon, Brown County Assistant District Attorney Wendy Lemkuil recommended that Anderson be sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole in 60 years. But Anderson’s attorney, Carrie LaPlant, did not make any arguments for the sentence, other than to say the defense “agrees” with the pre-sentence investigation report — which recommended life without the possibility of parole.

Brown County District Court Judge Thomas Walsh accepted the defense’s recommendation. The killing, he said, was “very, very disturbing and troubling,” and its random nature further underscored the need to protect society from Anderson forever.

“You really can’t overstate the gravity of this crime,” Walsh said.

Anderson is already serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole in Alabama for the killing of a second man, identified by Alabama media as 52-year-old Dwight Dixon.

In his sentencing argument, Lemkuil explained that although Anderson was already serving a life sentence in Alabama, it was necessary to bring him to Brown County for criminal prosecution to provide justice for Ernst’s family and to ensure that Anderson would be held accountable if anything happened to overturn the Alabama conviction.

No one shared any victim impact statements at the sentencing hearing, but attorneys said Ernst’s family submitted a letter for Walsh to read. The letter was sealed so it would not be visible to the public.

According to a criminal complaint, police found Ernst dead in his Packerland Drive home on Aug. 2, 2022, while conducting a wellness check after someone notified them he had not shown up for work or contacted family for more than a day. A handwritten note was left on a piece of paper on a chair next to Ernst’s body: “I am so sorry he didn’t deserve this.”

On the wall next to Ernst’s body was a Bible verse, the letters RIP and the date August 1, 2022.

The Brown County medical examiner determined that Ernst had approximately 51 stab wounds.

“It was just a gruesome, gruesome sight that law enforcement encountered,” Walsh said at the sentencing hearing.

Investigators found a vehicle registered to Anderson where Ernst’s car was usually parked, the complaint says. They soon learned that Michigan law enforcement was looking for Anderson as a prime suspect in an investigation into an assault from the previous day.

Anderson was arrested on Aug. 3, 2022, after he killed a man in Alabama. According to the indictment, he confessed to both murders and the assault in an interview with Alabama police.

Anderson told police that on the morning of Aug. 1, he woke up around 5 a.m. at his Michigan home and thought about driving to the military and mining equipment warehouse where he used to work to “deal with” some people “he couldn’t stand,” the complaint says.

While driving in Michigan before 6 a.m., he saw a woman jogging and thought about killing her. He told police he ran after her and at one point choked her, punched her several times, but let her go when he “started thinking about my mom.”

Anderson then drove to Green Bay, bought a phone at Walmart and installed a dating app. He created a profile using photos he found online, he told investigators. When the man messaged him, Anderson asked him indirectly if he had a vehicle.

Anderson told investigators he went to the man’s home where he killed him with a knife he hid in his hoodie.

After killing Ernst, Anderson said he returned to Walmart to buy some items and then went home. Walmart security cameras captured Anderson’s vehicle before the killing and Ernst’s vehicle after the killing, according to the complaint.

In an interview with police, Anderson stated that since he was 14 or 15 years old, he “always wanted to kill somebody,” the complaint states.

He said he used the dating app “just to find someone to kill with.”

RELATED: Man who used dating app to find murder victims convicted of 2022 Green Bay killing

Anderson said he left Ernst’s apartment the next morning, Aug. 2, to drive to Alabama. There, he met another man through the same dating app and killed him with the same knife, according to the complaint.

During Monday’s sentencing hearing, Anderson declined to testify in court.

The amount of restitution Anderson must pay will be determined at a later hearing, Walsh said.

Contact Kelli Arseneau at 920-213-3721 or [email protected]. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter, at @ArseneauKelli.