WAUKEGAN, Sick. — The suburban Chicago man who admitted to fatally taking pictures seven individuals and wounding dozens of others throughout a 2022 Independence Day parade was sentenced Thursday to life in jail with out the potential for parole.
Lake County Choose Victoria Rossetti handed down seven sentences of life in jail for 24-year-old Robert Crimo III, as prosecutors requested, for the first-degree homicide costs after listening to emotional testimony from survivors and the kin of these killed within the taking pictures. She additionally sentenced Crimo, who didn’t attend the two-day listening to, to 50 years for 48 counts of tried homicide.
“This court docket has completely no phrases that might adequately describe and seize the horror and ache that was inflicted on July 4th,” the choose mentioned. She added that Crimo, who didn’t attend the sentencing, “is irretrievably wicked, completely incorrigible, irreparably corrupt and past any rehabilitation.”
The proceedings have been marked by unpredictable conduct, together with Thursday when Rossetti briefly paused the listening to as a result of Crimo modified his thoughts and was being escorted to the listening to. Nonetheless, his protection attorneys later mentioned it was for an unrelated concern and he went again to his Lake County jail cell.
Crimo additionally declined to supply a press release to the court docket by way of his attorneys. The choose ordered consecutive sentences, and Crimo “will die in jail,” his public defender, Gregory Ticsay, mentioned.
“He is at all times recognized that he was dealing with life in jail,” Ticsay mentioned. “He has spared this group the prolonged trial.”
Dozens had been wounded within the taking pictures within the suburb north of Chicago. They ranged in age from their 80s to an 8-year-old boy who was left paralyzed from the waist down.
Crimo pleaded responsible final month simply earlier than jurors had been as a consequence of report for opening statements. He beforehand backed out of a plea deal, fired his public defenders and reversed his resolution to signify himself. He signed his identify and Donald Trump’s when he waived his proper to trial. Crimo has additionally skipped a number of hearings, regardless of warnings from Rossetti that the case would proceed with out him.
Some survivors known as Crimo “cowardly” for not attending the listening to, whereas others mentioned seeing him provoked nervousness. One cited their religion in forgiving him.
Liz Turnipseed, who was significantly injured and now depends on a cane, dismissed Crimo skipping court docket as a part of his newest “antics.” She mentioned the sentencing was an essential finish to the case.
“I need not see his face. I do know what he appears like,” she instructed reporters Thursday.
Whereas not unprecedented, it is uncommon for defendants to skip trial, particularly sentencing, however constitutionally they’ve the fitting to not attend, mentioned David Erickson, a former state appellate choose who teaches at Chicago-Kent School of Regulation. Usually in violent instances, defendants will clarify themselves or profess innocence earlier than sentencing.
“Actually in crimes of violence it is commonplace for a defendant to point out some regret,” Erickson mentioned.
Nonetheless, prosecutors and Rossetti mentioned that Crimo didn’t present any remorse.
Prosecutors argued Crimo was totally in charge of his actions as he fired 83 photographs over 40 seconds from the roof of a constructing overlooking the downtown Highland Park parade route.
“This was his evil plan. He supposed to finish the happiness that he noticed round him,” mentioned Lake County State’s Legal professional Eric Rinehart, who known as him “cruel.
Prosecutors introduced proof in the course of the listening to that they’d ready for trial, together with clips of Crimo’s video-taped confession.
Within the interview, which protection attorneys tried to have thrown out, a blank-faced Crimo slumped in a chair with arms crossed. He instructed officers that he briefly reconsidered the assault as he mounted an issue with a gun, however then moved ahead.
“I walked up the steps, jumped on the roof and opened hearth,” he mentioned.
The seven individuals killed had been 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.
___
Related Press author Scott Bauer contributed to this report from Madison, Wisconsin.
Copyright © 2025 by The Related Press. All Rights Reserved.
