To the relief of his many victims, the Highland Park parade shooter will spend the rest of his life in prison.
Those who survived the deadly attack welcomed the sentence, and vowed to continue recovering from the horrific events of July 4, 2022. They stressed, however, that the lives and sense of security lost that day can never be replaced.
“A mass shooting is like a bomb blast throughout a community,” said Highland Park resident Erica Weeder, who was injured in the attack alongside her husband. “Because of this mass shooting, this act of terror, I, my children, and our entire community now know that no one is ever really safe.”
Lake County Judge Victoria Rossetti sentenced Robert Crimo III to seven consecutive life sentences for each victim he killed, plus 50 years for the four dozen people he was convicted of attempting to murder.
Crimo did not attend the two-day hearing, prompting victims to call him a coward. The sentencing was briefly halted when there came word that Crimo would show up, but the proceedings continued after it was revealed he was upset that jailers had taken some books from him, including the Quran, but would make no statement.
The 24-year-old gunman unexpectedly pleaded guilty last month to first-degree murder of seven spectators and the attempted murder of 48 people wounded in the attack. His plea avoided a lengthy trial that was about to begin.
Killed in the shooting were Katherine Goldstein, 64; Irina McCarthy, 35, and her husband, Kevin McCarthy, 37; Stephen Straus, 88; Jacki Sundheim, 63; Nicolas Toledo-Zaragoza, 78; and Eduardo Uvaldo, 69.
“My dad was living the American Dream,” said Uvaldo’s daughter, Karina Mendez. “and died the American nightmare.”
Illinois has no death penalty, and federal prosecutors did not pursue charges as they have done in other mass shootings, so the life sentence was required by law.
“The court finds that the defendant is irretrievably depraved, permanently incorrigible, irreparably corrupt and beyond any rehabilitation,” the judge said.
Crimo had planned the attack for years, but paused just beforehand to consider whether to go through with it, according to his recorded police interrogation. After listening to rock music, he said, he decided to do it. He went on a rooftop and used an AR-15-assault-style rifle to fire 83 shots at people who had been watching the parade, causing panic and confusion as people scattered to seek cover.
That police interview with Crimo after his arrest the night of the shooting served as key evidence in the sentencing hearing. In the recording, Crimo described how he scouted the downtown and monitored police response times before carrying out the attack. He was also caught on camera fleeing the scene in a skirt after putting on makeup to hide his tattoos.
State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart said Crimo — who laughed and made jokes during the interrogation — has never shown remorse for his actions.
“He didn’t want to confront what he had done,” Rinehart said.
Before the sentencing, 19 victims and their loved ones shared their stories of grief, loss, heroism, and recovery from the attack. Some told of watching victims bleed to death. Others recalled people helping victims at the risk of their own lives. Police told of rushing to respond to the shooting and take victims to Highland Park Hospital. Many victims described how their children remain traumatized, jolted by loud sounds and wary of public spaces.
Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering called for continued healing as a community, and for federal lawmakers to ban assault-style weapons. “This does not have to stay the American nightmare,” she said.
Crimo’s father, Robert Crimo Jr., sponsored his son’s firearm owner card, which allowed him to buy the high-powered rifle used in the shooting despite red flags. The father pleaded guilty to misdemeanor reckless conduct and was sentenced to 60 days behind bars in 2023.
A lawsuit against gun manufacturer Smith & Wesson, gun shops, and Crimo III and his father recently received a court ruling to proceed with discovery, and now will include evidence from the criminal trial.
Crimo’s sentence served justice, but more needs to be done to hold accountable all parties that had any role in the tragedy, attorney Lance Northcutt said. He represents Aiden McCarthy who was 2 when both his parents were killed in the shooting.
“True justice could never be done in this case,” Northcutt said. “For the McCarthy family, justice would be that little Aiden McCarthy would walk out of kindergarten today, and see his mother and his father waiting there with open arms to greet him. He was robbed of that by this man.”
Still, Northcutt said, “What that means, this sentence today, is that Robert Crimo will rot in a cage where he belongs, that he will never see the light of day, that he will never breathe air with free people. That is everything that could have been done, and that is the appropriate thing.”
Liz Turnipseed, who was injured during the shooting, told reporters it was “vindicating” that Crimo would spend life in jail. She walked with a cane, and the pain from her injuries changes day by day. While it wasn’t closure for her, the sentencing was the end of a chapter.
“I don’t have to worry about him anymore,” she said. ” Me, my husband and my daughter can continue to move forward and can continue to heal.”
Ashbey Beasley, who was at the parade and fled with her son, has turned the shooting into a drive for pushing gun safety legislation. She called for terrorism charges in mass shootings that would open the door for the death penalty.
“This is domestic terrorism,” she said. “We have to start calling it that.”
