Independence Day parade shooter who killed seven sentenced to life in prison

The Guardian

24-04-2025

The suburban Chicago man who admitted to fatally shooting seven people and wounding dozens of others during a 2022 Independence Day parade was sentenced on Thursday to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The Lake county judge Victoria Rossetti handed down seven consecutive sentences of life in prison, as prosecutors requested, for the first-degree murder charges after hearing emotional testimony from survivors and the relatives of those killed in the shooting.
She also sentenced Robert E Crimo III, 24, to 50 years on each of the 48 counts of attempted murder to be served consecutively to the seven life sentences.
'This court has absolutely no words that could adequately describe and capture the horror and pain that was inflicted on July 4th,' the judge said. Crimo'has a complete disregard for human life' and 'is irretrievably depraved, permanently incorrigible, irreparably corrupt and beyond any rehabilitation', she said.
The case has moved slowly, in part because Crimo backed out of a plea deal, fired his public defenders and reversed his decision to represent himself. He signed his name and Donald Trump's when he waived his right to trial. He also changed his plea to guilty last month just moments before opening statements at his trial.
Dozens were wounded in the shooting in the suburb north of Chicago. They ranged in age from their 80s to an eight-year-old boy, who was left paralyzed from the waist down.
Survivors and witnesses told the court about how their lives have changed since he killed seven people and hurt dozens more.
Keely Roberts, whose eight-year-old son Cooper Roberts was the youngest victim, called Crimo 'cowardly' for not attending Wednesday's hearing.
'You will not hear my grief,' she said. 'You are now irrelevant.'
Some survivors called Crimo a 'monster' while another cited their faith in forgiving him. Many described feeling empty or facing deep sadness since the shooting. Some no longer attend public gatherings.
Erica Weeder described how she and her husband were injured and helpless on the ground, watching others bleed out. For weeks, there was shrapnel in her body and a bullet lodged in her husband's elbow.
'A mass shooting is like a bomb blast throughout a community,' she said.
Prosecutors argued that Crimo was fully in control of his actions as he fired 83 shots over 40 seconds.
'This was his evil plan. He intended to end the happiness that he saw around him,' said the Lake County state's attorney, Eric Rinehart.
Prosecutors on Wednesday revealed parts of the trove of evidence prepared for trial, including key parts of Crimo's videotaped confession.
In the interview, which defense attorneys tried to have thrown out, a blank-faced Crimo slumped in a chair with arms crossed. He told officers that he briefly reconsidered the attack because of a problem with the gun. He later fixed the weapon.
'I walked up the stairs, jumped on the roof and opened fire,' he said.
Crimo was calm and cavalier, even laughing and joking, said Brian Bodden, a Highland Park police officer.
The seven people killed were Katherine Goldstein, 64; Jacquelyn Sundheim, 63; Stephen Straus, 88; Nicolas Toledo-Zaragoza, 78; Eduardo Uvaldo, 69; and the married couple Kevin McCarthy, 37, and Irina McCarthy, 35.
Crimo's father, Robert Crimo Jr, a former mayoral candidate, served less than two months in jail on charges in connection with how his son obtained a gun license.