Illinois man gets life sentences for deadly shooting at 2022 July Fourth parade

WAUKEGAN, Ill. — The suburban Chicago man who admitted to fatally shooting seven people and wounding dozens of others during a 2022 Independence Day parade was sentenced Thursday to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Lake County Judge Victoria Rossetti handed down seven sentences of life in prison for 24-year-old Robert Crimo III, 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 Crimo, who did not attend the two-day hearing, to 50 years for 48 counts of attempted murder.

''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. She added that Crimo, who did not attend the sentencing, ''is irretrievably depraved, permanently incorrigible, irreparably corrupt and beyond any rehabilitation."

The proceedings have been marked by unpredictable behavior, including Thursday when Rossetti briefly paused the hearing because Crimo changed his mind and was being escorted to the hearing. However, his defense attorneys later said it was for an unrelated issue and he went back to his Lake County jail cell.

Crimo also declined to offer a statement to the court through his attorneys. The judge ordered consecutive sentences, and Crimo ''will die in prison,'' his public defender, Gregory Ticsay, said.

''He's always known that he was facing life in prison,'' Ticsay said. ''He has spared this community the lengthy trial.''

Dozens were wounded in the shooting in 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 guilty last month just before jurors were due to report for opening statements. He previously 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. Crimo has also skipped several hearings, despite warnings from Rossetti that the case would proceed without him.

Some survivors called Crimo ''cowardly'' for not attending the hearing, while others said seeing him provoked anxiety. One cited their faith in forgiving him.

Liz Turnipseed, who was seriously injured and now relies on a cane, dismissed Crimo skipping court as part of his latest ''antics.'' She said the sentencing was an important end to the case.

''I don't need to see his face. I know what he looks like," she told reporters Thursday.

While not unprecedented, it's unusual for defendants to skip trial, especially sentencing, but constitutionally they have the right not to attend, said David Erickson, a former state appellate judge who teaches at Chicago-Kent College of Law. Often in violent cases, defendants will explain themselves or profess innocence before sentencing.

''Certainly in crimes of violence it's not unusual for a defendant to show some remorse,'' Erickson said.

However, prosecutors and Rossetti said that Crimo did not show any regret.

Prosecutors argued Crimo was fully in control of his actions as he fired 83 shots over 40 seconds from the roof of a building overlooking the downtown Highland Park parade route.

''This was his evil plan. He intended to end the happiness that he saw around him,'' said Lake County State's Attorney Eric Rinehart, who called him "merciless.

Prosecutors presented evidence during the hearing that they'd prepared for trial, including clips of Crimo's video-taped 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 as he fixed a problem with a gun, but then moved forward.

''I walked up the stairs, jumped on the roof and opened fire,'' he said.

The seven people killed were 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.

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This story has been corrected to show Crimo was sentenced to 50 years for the attempted murder charges, not 50 years for each count of attempted murder.

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Associated Press writer Scott Bauer contributed to this report from Madison, Wisconsin.