Just before the start of his trial for the 2022 Highland Park massacre, shooter Robert Crimo III pleaded guilty to murdering seven people and injuring more than 50 others.
On Monday, March 3, Crimo, 24, appeared at the Lake County Court in Waukegan, Ill., where opening arguments for his anticipated month-long trial were supposed to begin at 9 a.m., ABC 7 Chicago reports.
Crimo was charged with 69 counts of murder and attempted murder for opening fire at a Fourth of July parade in the wealthy Chicago suburb of Highland Park with a semi-automatic rifle from a rooftop in the town’s central business district.
As terrified people ran for their lives, Crimo disguised himself as a woman to blend into the crowd and to hide his noticeable face and neck tattoos as he fled to his mother’s house, police said at the time, KRON 4 reports.
The scene of the 2022 Highland Park mass shooting.
Grace Hauck/USA TODAY NETWORK
After rejecting a plea deal from prosecutors in June, on Monday, Crimo pleaded guilty to all 69 criminal counts, WGN 9 reports.
Before he pleaded guilty, Crimo’s mother, Denise Pesina, tried to stop him from changing his plea, saying the case had been remanded to federal court and should not have been tried in Lake County, WTTW reports.
Lake County State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart made clear at a press conference afterward that the guilty plea “was not a negotiation, this was not a deal,” WGN reports. “He made a free decision to plead guilty to every single count. He received nothing in exchange for this plea today.”
Rinehart said he only learned about Crimo’s decision to plead guilty on the morning of the trial, WTTW reports.
Crimo’s decision to take an “open plea” allows a defendant to be sentenced solely by a judge without sentence recommendations from prosecutors negotiated in a plea agreement, according to WTTW.
Crimo pleaded guilty to 21 counts of first-degree murder – three counts for each of the 7 victims he killed, and 48 counts of attempted murder, according to WTTW.
When the judge asked Crimo if he “understood this,” he replied, “Yes.”
Crimo is scheduled to be sentenced on April 23. He faces life in state prison.
In a statement on Facebook, Mayor Nancy Rotering said, “Our thoughts and hearts remain with the families whose loved ones were senselessly taken, those who were injured, and everyone whose lives were forever changed by this horrific act.”
Crimo’s guilty plea “is an important step toward justice, but does not erase the pain,” she said.
She ended by saying, “We continue to stand together and remain committed to supporting the victims, their families, and our entire community as we move forward together as one Highland Park.”
