By JERRY NOWICKI
& PETER HANCOCK
Capitol News Illinois
news@capitolnewsillinois.com
The man who pleaded guilty to a mass shooting in 2022 in Highland Park that left seven people dead and prompted the passage of a ban on assault-style weapons in Illinois, has been sentenced to seven consecutive life sentences.
Robert Crimo III pleaded guilty on March 3, the day his trial was set to begin in Lake County, to 69 counts of murder and attempted murder stemming from that shooting. His attorneys informed Judge Victoria Rossetti that he wanted to change his plea just before what was to be the start of a three-week trial.
Crimo was accused of firing into a crowd of people from a rooftop in Highland Park during the city’s annual Independence Day parade using a semiautomatic rifle equipped with three 30-round magazines. He reportedly fired approximately 80 shots in about two minutes, killing seven people while injuring dozens more.
Rossetti on Thursday sentenced Crimo to consecutive life sentences for each of the seven victims who died. He also received 50 years for the 48 counts of attempted murder to which he pleaded guilty.
Victims of the shooting include Katherine Goldstein, 64; married couple Irina McCarthy, 35, and Kevin McCarthy, 37; Stephen Straus, 88; Jacki Sundheim, 63; Nicolas Toledo-Zaragoza, 78; and Eduardo Uvaldo, 69.
Survivors and witnesses shared stories with the court during the sentencing hearing on Wednesday and Thursday, which Crimo did not attend.
The Highland Park shooting in part prompted Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker to call for bans on assault weapons and large-capacity magazines at both the state and national levels. State lawmakers took up the issue during a lame duck session the following January and passed what is now called the Protect Illinois Communities Act.
It prohibits the purchase, sale, transfer or ownership of hundreds of types of firearms that it classifies as “assault weapons,” although people who owned such guns before the law’s enactment are allowed to keep them if they obtain a special endorsement on their Firearm Owner’s Identification card.
It also bans large-capacity magazines and various kinds of firearm attachments, including those that increase the rate of fire of a semiautomatic weapon to simulate the rapid fire of a fully automatic weapon.
