Caleb Scott Anderson

GREEN BAY, Wis. — A U.P. man, formerly of Caspian, pleaded guilty Thursday to the murder of a 65-year-old Green Bay man in 2022.

Caleb Scott Anderson, 25, will be sentenced in Brown County Circuit Court on Sept. 23 after pleading no contest Thursday to first-degree intentional homicide for the fatal stabbing of 65-year-old Patrick Ernst, of Green Bay, two years ago. A no-contest plea does not admit or deny guilt, but is treated as a guilty plea.

The body of Patrick L. Ernst, 65, was found at approximately 8:30 a.m. Aug. 2, 2022, after Green Bay Police were called to an apartment at 1320 Packerland Dr., located across the street from Green Bay’s Southwest High School, for a welfare check. Ernst was stabbed 51 times during the murder, which is believed to have happened a day before his body was discovered.

Court documents show that Anderson found Ernst through Grindr, a smartphone app men use to meet other men for sex. Information presented in the case showed Anderson had taken selfie videos and photos with the victim’s body, wrote a Bible verse on the victim’s wall — a portion of Psalm 23 — and left a handwritten apology note.

Anderson has already been ordered to serve life in prison in Alabama without possibility of parole after pleading guilty in January to capital murder charges in the Aug. 3, 2022 stabbing death of 52-year-old Dwight Anthony of Flomaton, Ala. Anderson left his cell phone at the murder scene and was driving Ernst’s vehicle at the time of Anthony’s death.

Prior to both murders, Anderson was suspected of assaulting an 18-year-old woman who was jogging around 6 a.m. on Bates/Gaastra Road, just north of Gaastra, in Iron County, on Aug. 1, 2022. The woman was alone but able to fight off Anderson and get away.

In 2019, Anderson was convicted of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct in Marquette County and sentenced to 12 months of probation in what was known as the “serial butt-grabber” case. He was accused of running up behind unsuspecting women in Marquette and grabbing their buttocks and then running away.

Anderson was extradited to Wisconsin following his conviction in Alabama. He is currently being held at the Brown County Jail on a $2 million bond.