- Robert Crimo III is ready to face trial on Monday for a mass capturing at a 2022 Independence Day parade in Highland Park, Illinois.
- Crimo faces 21 counts of first-degree homicide, three counts for every particular person killed, in addition to 48 counts of tried homicide.
- Police say Crimo confessed to the capturing throughout a videotaped interrogation, however the 24-year-old has since pleaded not responsible.
The trial of a suburban Chicago man accused of a mass capturing at a 2022 Independence Day parade that killed seven folks and wounded dozens extra is ready to start Monday.
Robert Crimo III faces 21 counts of first-degree homicide, three counts for every particular person killed, in addition to 48 counts of tried homicide. Prosecutors dropped the much less critical 48 counts of aggravated battery earlier than jury choice final week.
The highway to the trial has been bumpy, with delays partly as a result of Crimo’s unpredictability, together with his rejection of a plea deal that even shocked his attorneys. As potential jurors had been questioned final week, he sporadically appeared in court docket, at instances refusing to go away his jail cell.
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Authorities alleged Crimo perched on a roof and fired into crowds assembled for the annual Fourth of July parade in downtown Highland Park, 30 miles north of Chicago.
Prosecutors have submitted 1000’s of pages of proof, in addition to hours of a videotaped interrogation throughout which police say Crimo confessed to the capturing. However the 24-year-old has since pleaded not responsible.
His protection attorneys have declined remark forward of the trial, which is predicted to final a few month.
Robert E. Crimo III watches the jury choice course of in the course of the first day of his trial on the Lake County Courthouse, Waukegan, Illinois, on Feb. 24, 2025. (AP Picture/Nam Y. Huh, Pool, File)
His father, Robert Crimo Jr., a onetime mayoral candidate, was charged in reference to how his son obtained a gun license. He pleaded responsible in 2023 to seven misdemeanor counts of reckless conduct and served lower than two months in jail.
He has attended his son’s hearings, typically making eye contact with him throughout court docket. He declined to debate the case intimately forward of the trial.
“As a dad or mum, I really like my son very a lot,” he mentioned. “And Bobby loves this nation greater than anybody would ever know.”
Prosecutors plan to name a number of regulation enforcement officers and survivors of the capturing to testify. They will even present movies of Crimo’s statements to police. A few of the movies have already been proven in court docket as prosecutors tried unsuccessfully to have them thrown out.
Crimo’s erratic conduct has contributed to court docket delays.
He fired his public defenders and mentioned he would signify himself, then abruptly reversed himself. In June 2024, when he was anticipated to simply accept a plea deal and provides victims and kin an opportunity to deal with him publicly, he arrived on the court docket in a wheelchair and rejected the deal.
Residents within the rich Highland Park group of roughly 30,000 set alongside Lake Michigan have mourned the losses deeply. Some potential jurors had been excused due to their connections to the case.
Metropolis leaders canceled the same old parade in 2023, choosing a “group stroll.” The parade was reinstated final 12 months on a distinct route and with a memorial for the victims.
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“Our group is as soon as once more reminded of the immense ache and trauma attributable to the Highland Park capturing,” Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering mentioned in an announcement forward of jury choice. “Our hearts stay with the victims, their households, and all these whose lives had been eternally modified by that devastating day.”
The victims killed within the capturing included Katherine Goldstein, 64; Jacquelyn Sundheim, 63; Stephen Straus, 88; Nicolas Toledo-Zaragoza, 78; Eduardo Uvaldo, 69; and married couple Kevin McCarthy, 37, and Irina McCarthy, 35.
Survivors and their households have filed a number of lawsuits, together with in opposition to the maker of the semiautomatic rifle used within the capturing and in opposition to authorities they accuse of negligence.
