WAUKEGAN, Ill. – Robert Crimo III, who pleaded guilty in the 2022 Highland Park Independence Day shooting, was sentenced to seven life sentences Thursday.
The natural life sentences, one for each of the seven victims, will run consecutively without the possibility of parole.
Lake County Judge Victoria Rossetti handed down the sentence after emotional testimony from survivors and the relatives of those killed in the shooting.
“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, 24, “has a complete disregard for human life” and “is irretrievably depraved, permanently incorrigible, irreparably corrupt and beyond any rehabilitation,” she said.
Crimo switched his plea to guilty last month to 21 counts of first-degree murder, three counts for each person killed.
Crimo shot and killed seven people and wounded dozens more who were attending a Fourth of July in downtown Highland Park in 2022.
First day of sentencing
Victim Impact Statements::
On Wednesday, witnesses, survivors, and loved ones of the victims shared powerful stories of what they remembered from that fateful day. Some of the details they discussed had never been shared publicly before.
They spoke about how they escaped the gunfire, why they stopped to help others, and sadly, how some of them lost the people closest to them.
Children and spouses of the victims—including Jacki Sundheim, Eduardo Uvaldo, and Katherine Goldstein—shared how a joyous day turned to darkness.
Some expressed that no matter the sentence, “justice cannot be served.”
Crimo refused to appear in court—a stunt he has pulled in the past—but the hearing proceeded without him.
“He knew what he was going to hear, he knew how many lives he had changed, and he didn’t want to face it,” said Antonio Romanucci, founding partner of Romanucci & Blandin.
Romanucci is representing several victims in a civil lawsuit filed against Smith & Wesson, the manufacturer of the firearm used in the attack.
More than a dozen victim impact statements were shared on Wednesday, but first, prosecutors presented evidence to the court.
Testimony was heard from several police officers, an FBI agent, a doctor, and the woman who brought Kevin and Irina McCarthy’s son, Aiden, home while police worked to identify his parents.
Dana Ruder Ring was hit with shrapnel before she and her husband took Aiden McCarthy to safety.
“As the chaos was unfolding, they came across a woman, a woman whose name we still don’t know, who was holding little Aiden in her arms,” said Lance Northcutt, partner and attorney for the McCarthy family, Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard P.C. “This woman handed Dana little Aiden and said in some substance, ‘the blood isn’t ours and he’s not mine.’”
Video clips of the shooter’s initial interview with police were also shown on Wednesday. In it, Crimo expressed no remorse, said he felt like a zombie during the shooting, and told detectives he’d been planning the attack for two years.
Details on the shooting
The backstory:
Authorities said Robert Crimo III, 24, confessed to police that he unleashed a hail of bullets on a crowd of people attending a July Fourth in Highland Park in 2022.
During a court hearing presenting the murder charges, Lake County Assistant State’s Attorney Ben Dillon said Crimo climbed up the fire escape of a building above the , “looked down his sights, aimed” and fired at people across the street. He left 83 spent bullet casings and three ammunition magazines on the rooftop.
Witnesses described initial confusion as the shots began, followed by panic as families fled the route through downtown Highland Park, an affluent suburb of about 30,000 people near Lake Michigan.
Investigators said Crimo initially evaded capture by disguising himself as a woman and blending into the fleeing crowd to get away from the scene.
“Investigators do believe he did this to conceal his facial tattoos and his identity and help him during the escape with the other people who were fleeing the chaos,” said Lake County Major Crime Task Force spokesman Christopher Covelli.
Crimo then borrowed his mother’s car and briefly contemplated a second attack on a celebration in Madison, Wisconsin, before returning to Illinois, where police arrested him.
Authorities said Crimo ditched the semi-automatic rifle he used in Illinois, but he had another, similar rifle and about 60 more rounds with him.
The attack left a toddler without parents, families mourning the loss of beloved grandparents and a synagogue grieving the death of a congregant who for decades had also worked on the staff.
Who were the victims?
Dozens of people were wounded during the attack, including 8-year-old Cooper Roberts who was left paralyzed from the waist down when the shooting severed his spine.
Those killed in the attack 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.
KEVIN and IRINA MCCARTHY
It was supposed to be a fun day for the couple, who brought their 2-year-old son, Aiden, with them to watch marching bands and patriotic floats.
Instead, they were killed in the gunfire, leaving their son orphaned. A stranger scooped up the toddler and handed him to Greg Ring as he took cover with his wife and three children behind a popular pancake house.
The family was later able to identify the boy and reunite him with his grandparents. Friends of the McCarthys said Irina’s parents would care for the boy going forward.
STEPHEN STRAUS
Straus showed up to the early and was attending alone, according to his grandchildren, who ate dinner with him the night before.
The Independence Day was an annual tradition for Straus — one of the many ways the 88-year-old financial advisor stayed active and involved in his community. According to his family, Straus rode the train to work every day, walked and biked regularly, and loved to visit art museums and festivals.
Stephen Straus is survived by a brother, a wife, his son and four grandchildren.
JACQUELYN SUNDHEIM
Sundheim loved her synagogue, where she once taught preschoolers and coordinated bar and bat mitzvah ceremonies. She had worked there for decades and was a devoted, lifelong member known for her kindness and warmth, synagogue officials said in a statement.
Sundheim, 63, was survived by her husband, Bruce, and their daughter Leah, according to an email the synagogue sent to congregants.
KATHERINE GOLDSTEIN
Goldstein’s husband described her as an easygoing travel companion who was always game to visit far-flung locales.
“She didn’t complain,” Craig Goldstein, a hospital physician, told The New York Times. “She was always along for the ride.”
Goldstein was a mother of two daughters in their early 20s, Cassie and Alana. She attended the with her eldest daughter, Cassie, so she could reunite with friends from high school, Goldstein said.
NICOLAS TOLEDO-ZARAGOZA
Toledo-Zaragoza had come to Illinois to visit his family about two months before the shooting, according to his granddaughter, Xochil Toledo.
His family wanted him to stay permanently because of injuries he had suffered after being hit by a car a couple of years ago during an earlier visit to Highland Park. Toledo-Zaragoza was hit by three bullets and died at the scene.
EDUARDO UVALDO
For the Uvaldo family, like others in the Highland Park area, the Independence Day was an annual tradition.
When gunfire erupted from a rooftop along the route, Eduardo Uvaldo was shot twice. His wife, Maria, was struck in the head by bullet fragments and his grandson was shot in the arm.
What do we know about Crimo’s past?
Dig deeper:
Robert Crimo III is the son of Denise Pesina and Robert Crimo Jr., a former Highland Park mayoral candidate in 2020 and president at Bob’s Pantry & Deli in Highland Park.
Crimo was an aspiring rapper with the stage name “Awake the Rapper.” An IMDB page previously stated that Crimo is a “six-foot Hip Hop phenom” born on Sept. 20, 2000. “He’s the middle child of three and of Italian descent,” the page reads.
Crimo began uploading his music to the internet at age 11, but first gained traction with his 2016 track “By The Pond,” according to IMDB.
The rapper released a cryptic track called “Are You Awake” on Oct. 15, 2021. The track appears to suggest that Crimo was planning a life-defining act beyond his ability to stop. The video includes drawings of a man aiming a rifle at another person.
Police have said Crimo had two previous encounters with authorities.
In April 2019, Crimo attempted suicide by machete, according to a police report obtained by The Associated Press that noted a “history of attempts.”
In September 2019, police returned after a family member reported that Crimo had a collection of knives and had threatened to “kill everyone.” But according to Illinois State Police, both Crimo and his mother disputed the allegation.
“The individual told police he did not feel like hurting himself or others and was offered mental health resources,” the statement said.
Police have said Crimo’s father, Robert Crimo Jr., later told investigators the knives belonged to him, and authorities returned them.
When the younger Crimo applied for a state gun license in December 2019, his father supported it, a requirement for applicants who are under 21.
The Source: The information in this report came from previous FOX 32 reporting and contributions from the Associated Press.
