May 16, 2023 3:50p
(WGTD)---The man who was convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend will have a chance of getting out of prison. But 42-year-old Zachariah Anderson won't even be able to apply for release until his early 90s.
Anderson was sentenced Tuesday by Judge Bruce Schroeder on counts of 1st degree intentional homicide, hiding a corpse and stalking. The prosecution claimed that Anderson killed 40-year-old Rosalio Gutierrez, Jr. in his Kenosha apartment three years ago then disposed of the body elsewhere.
In court Tuesday, Anderson maintained his innocence. "Without going into the case, I really don't think we got to the heart of the matter," Anderson said. "What I can tell you is I didn't kill anybody," he said.
In handing down the sentence, Schroeder tried to distinguish between Anderson's character and the crime. "I'm not commenting at all on the type of person you are because it's not part of the equation," Schroeder said. "But what you did was frightening--horrible. And you can wag your head all you want but the jury found beyond a reasonable doubt that you did it."
The victim's mother, Selia Patterson, addressed the judge for nearly 15 minutes, describing how she knew her son was dead once she entered the outer vestibule of his apartment building. "My heart started to race, and I felt this overwhelming feeling of despair and helplessness as I approached my son's front door," she said. "I saw blood stains on his apartment front door and walls. I knew then--right then--that my son was gone."
Patterson said she and her husband had traveled from their home in Colorado to Kenosha upon learning of the disappearance of her son.
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