Dad Who Drowned 3 Young Kids In Bathtub Pleads Guilty

ROUND LAKE BEACH, IL — A 36-year-old Round Lake Beach man has pleaded guilty but mentally ill to drowning his three young children last year and then leaving a note for his estranged wife that read, "if I can't have them you can't either."

Jason Karels will receive an automatic sentence of natural life in prison without the possibility of parole when he is sentenced in February Lake County Circuit Court, prosecutors said Friday. He drowned his three children, Bryant Karels, 5, Cassidy Karels, 3, and Gideon Karels, 2, in the bathtub of his home in the 200 block of East Camden Avenue in Round Lake Beach in June 2022.

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