Crime & Law
Highland Park Parade Gunman Pleads Guilty to Murder, Attempted Murder Charges as Trial Was Set to Begin
Robert Crimo III, the gunman who killed seven people and wounded dozens of others at the Highland Park Fourth of July parade in 2022, pleaded guilty moments before his trial was set to begin.
Opening statements were set to start Monday morning at the Lake County Courthouse, where Crimo, 24, was accused of 21 counts of first-degree murder— three for each of the seven people killed — and 48 counts of attempted murder charges stemming from the 2022 mass shooting.
But just as those proceedings were getting underway, Crimo’s attorneys announced their client’s intent to plead guilty to every count in the indictment. Unlike a previous hearing, where Crimo appeared to have reached a plea deal but backed out at the last second, he informed the court he would be entering an open plea of guilty — meaning he did so without any sentence recommendation and would accept an automatic life sentence without the chance of parole.
“Do you still wish to plead guilty to all 69 counts?” Judge Victoria Rossetti asked before a courtroom packed with shooting victims and their families.
“Yes,” Crimo answered.
Crimo, who had previously refused to leave his jail cell to attend some pretrial hearings and portions of jury selection, appeared in the eighth-floor courtroom Monday morning alongside his attorneys wearing a dark suit and tie.
Crimo’s mother, Denise Pesina, who had a brief outburst in the courtroom and appeared to try and stop her son from changing his plea, maintained that the case has been remanded to federal court.
She claimed Rosetti had received notice of that Monday morning and told reporters in the courthouse lobby after the hearing that the Lake County court did not have standing to adjudicate the case.
Lake County State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart said his office only learned of Crimo’s intent to plead guilty this morning. He stressed that his office did not engage in any plea negotiations with Crimo after he rejected a deal last summer, and that Crimo “received nothing” in exchange for his plea.
“Our community may never heal from the defendant’s calculated and heinous actions that destroyed so many lives,” Rinehart said, “but today is an important step toward justice.”
Crimo was accused of firing more than 80 rounds from a Smith & Wesson M&P 15 semi-automatic rifle during the attack before disguising himself in women’s clothing in order to conceal distinctive face and neck tattoos and blend into the crowd as he made his escape.
Crimo allegedly accessed a business rooftop at the corner of Central Avenue and 2nd Street through a fire escape and began firing down on pedestrians around 10:14 a.m.
A witness told investigators Crimo was “scanning the crowd” just before they saw muzzle flashes coming from the rifle, prosecutors said. Investigators recovered numerous surveillance and cell phone videos from the scene, one of which allegedly showed Crimo running from an alley near the business and dropping an object wrapped in cloth.
More than 50 people were shot, including seven people who were killed: 64-year-old Katherine Goldstein; 35-year-old Irina McCarthy and her 37-year-old husband Kevin McCarthy; 63-year-old Jacquelyn Sundheim; 88-year-old Stephen Straus; 78-year-old Nicolas Toledo-Zaragoza; and 69-year-old Eduardo Uvaldo.
“Today’s guilty plea is an important step toward justice,” Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering said, “but it does not erase the pain.”
Lake County prosecutors on Monday recounted the day of the attack and read off in court the names of each of the 55 people who were injured or killed in the shooting.
According to prosecutors, Crimo was recorded on security video dropping the rifle he used in the shooting as he attempted to escape. That firearm was recovered and federal investigators recovered purchasing records tying it to Crimo.
Crimo’s DNA and fingerprints were also found on the weapon, and prosecutors said Crimo confessed to investigators following his arrest that he had committed the shooting, saying he identified himself in still images that captured him dropping the rifle.
As he entered his guilty plea, Crimo acknowledged this evidence and did not contest it.
The abrupt change came following three days of jury selection last week and more than two-and-a-half years of court proceedings. The trial was expected to last between three and five weeks.
As opening statements were set to begin, prosecutors and Crimo’s attorneys were summoned to Rosetti’s chambers to discuss an issue with one of the seated jurors. A few minutes later, they returned and Rosetti told the court that juror had been excused for cause and replaced with an alternate.
But instead of moving ahead with the proceedings as planned, Crimo’s team instead announced their intent to change their plea.
Before accepting that plea, Rosetti asked Crimo a litany of questions — whether he had discussed this plan with his attorneys, whether he’d been threatened into making this decision and whether he’d gone over potential defense strategies.
Crimo answered those questions but made no additional statements before the hearing ended and he was escorted out of court.
The surprise plea mirrored that of his father, Robert Crimo Jr., who similarly pleaded guilty on the day he was set to go to trial on reckless conduct charges for helping his son purchase firearms prior to the shooting.
“I think there was a huge collective sigh of relief,” said Ashbey Beasley, who said she and her son attended the parade and “ran for (their) lives” when the shooting began. “We wanted justice.”
She said she learned about the change in plea when everyone else did in court, but with the case over, victims can move ahead with their healing.
“Every moment we can move forward is a great relief and we (are) thankful to be able to move forward and take our community back on July 4th,” Beasley said.
