The suspect in the Highland Park mass shooting that saw seven people killed and dozens injured at a July 4 parade stunned a courtroom full of victims’ families when he backed out of a plea deal at the last minute.
Days before the second anniversary of the brutal AR-15 attack in the wealthy Chicago suburb, 23-year-old Robert Crimo III appeared before a Lake County judge only to reject an agreement with prosecutors to plead guilty.
Prosecutor Ben Dillon told Judge Victoria Rossetti that attorneys had discussed an agreement , which would have required Crimo to plead guilty to seven murder counts as well as 48 counts of aggravated battery with a firearm. The agreement would have seen him receive a life sentence.
Families of those killed in the shooting, in which authorities accused Crimo of taking a rifle to the annual parade and opening fire while on a roof into the crowd below, sat in court for the expected plea.
But when the judge asked Crimo if the agreement was what he discussed with attorneys he did not reply, remained silent, and looked back at his parents seated in the front row.
He and his defense attorneys then went into a private room, and upon returning, the judge asked Crimo whether he wanted to go forward.
“No,” the suspect responded.
The move reportedly stunned the families of the victims with one unidentified man holding up a middle finger to Crimo’s parents as they left the courtroom ahead of a private meeting prosecutors were holding with victims.
“It’s hard, it’s hard, just to come in here and see the person that took my dad, it’s not something that you want to do,” Karina Mendez, whose father Eduardo Uvaldo was killed in the attack, told The Associated Press.
Leah Sundheim, whose mother Jaquelin was also among the victims said that she wanted to just grieve for her mother “without the looming trial.”
“Instead, we were yet again shown his complete and blatant disregard for humans, or anyone, for all of us in that courtroom,” she said.
The seven victims in the deadly attack were Katherine Goldstein, 64; Irina McCarthy, 35; Kevin McCarthy, 37; Jacquelyn Sundheim, 63; Stephen Straus, 88; Nicolas Toledo-Zaragoza, 78, and Eduardo Uvaldo, 69.
After the hearing, Eric Rinehart, Lake County State’s attorney, told the outlet that his team met with the victims in support, adding that prosecutors will be ready for trial on February 25, 2025.
In late July 2022, Lake County prosecutors charged Crimo with 21 counts of murder, 48 counts of attempted murder, and 48 counts of aggravated battery, representing the seven people killed and dozens wounded in the attack. He pleaded not guilty to all 117 of these charges.
During Wednesday’s hearing, Crimo sat in a wheelchair. Christopher Covelli, deputy chief with the Lake County Sheriff’s Office, said that Crimo “informed our correctional staff this morning that he was nervous and unsure if he’d be able to walk in and out of the courtroom.
“For that reason, he was placed in a wheelchair for his movements,” he added.
Crimo allegedly took an AR-15 -style rifle to the July 4 parade route in Highland Park, an affluent suburb of Chicago. Once on the parade route he is accused of climbing a fire escape ladder onto the roof of a nearby store.
At around 10.14am – just 14 minutes into the event– he is accused of shooting more than 70 rounds of bullets into the crowd of parade-goers and participants below.
Prosecutors say he then climbed down from the roof and hid in plain sight among the crowd. He was later stopped and arrested on a highway after police released his name and photo to the public, leading a passer-by to raise the alarm.
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