Crimo In Court For 1st Time Since Not Guilty Plea: Highland Park Shooting Case

WAUKEGAN, IL — The man accused of killing seven people and wounding nearly 50 others at the Highland Park 4th of July parade appeared in court for the first time since he pleaded not guilty.

At a case management conference Tuesday in Waukegan, Lake County Circuit Court Judge Victoria Rossetti was told that prosecutors have turned over 2,500 pages of written discovery to the attorneys representing Robert "Bobby" Crimo III.

Assistant State's Attorney Ben Dillon said prosecutors planned to provide a significant amount of additional evidence in coming days to Assistant Public Defenders Gregory Ticsay and Anton Trizna, who have yet to demand a trial in the case.

Rosetti scheduled the next case management conference for Jan. 31 to allow the defense time to review the materials.

Under Illinois' speedy trial law, defendants who invoke their right to a trial are entitled to one within 120 days if they are behind bars, or 160 days if they are released on bail. Judges suspended the constitutional right for about 18 months due to the coronavirus pandemic, but it was reinstated last year.

Crimo, 22, who been ordered held without bond while awaiting trial, faces 117 felony counts in connection with the state's deadliest ever mass shooting by a single gunman.

Authorities said he admitted to opening fire with a semiautomatic assault-style rifle from a rooftop overlooking Central Avenue during Highland Park's first Independence Day parade in three years.

Jacquelyn "Jacki" Sundheim, 63, of Highland Park; Nicolas Toledo-Zaragoza, 78, of Morelos, Mexico; Katherine Goldstein, 64, of Highland Park; Irina McCarthy, 35, of Highland Park; and Kevin McCarthy, 37, of Highland Park, died at the scene. Stephen Straus, 88, of Highland Park, and Eduardo Uvaldo, 69, died in the days after the shooting.

---

After firing more than 80 bullets at paradegoers in less than a minute, Crimo wrapped up the rifle and brought it with him as he climbed down the fire escape to flee the scene, prosecutors said.

But Crimo, who told investigators that he disguised himself as a woman so people would not recognize him, dropped the rifle as he ran to his mother's house nearby, according to prosecutors.

Police said an emergency trace on the Smith & Wesson M&P 15 he left behind helped them quickly identify Crimo, who was able to retrieve another gun, a Keltec Sub 2000 collapsible rifle, before driving to Wisconsin in his mother's car.

---

Crimo told investigators that he considered carrying out another shooting in the Madison area but decided against it, authorities said.

But instead, he returned to Illinois, where he was arrested by a North Chicago police officer on Route 41 in Lake Forest about eight and a half hours after the shooting.

The pair of assault-style rifles were among the five guns that Crimo legally purchased in June and July of 2020.

Then 19, he was able to legally obtain the guns because his father sponsored his application for a firearm owners identification card, or FOID, and state police approved it despite prior reports of suicide attempts and threats to family members by the teen.

---

Crimo and his father are named as defendants, along with gunmaker Smith & Wesson and two gun shops, in a series of civil lawsuits filed in Lake County court by survivors of the mass shooting and families of those killed.

The suits note that Crimo, a Highland Park High School dropout, posted antisemitic comments and calls for genocide against Black and Asian people on an online forum in the days before the shooting.

He also had a history of posting violent songs, videos and other artwork on social media, including painting a rifle-wielding figure with a yellow smiley face for a head in the backyard of his mother's house.

But authorities have not offered any theories on his motive for the shooting.

As he left Tuesday's hearing, Crimo made a two-fingered hand gesture at prosecutors.

---

Speaking with reporters after Tuesday's hearing, Lake County State's Attorney Eric Rinehart said his office is providing information about witnesses, victims, officers and surveillance videos to Crimo's attorneys in an orderly fashion.

“There have been no problems in that process," Rinehart said, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. "The defense did not make any complaints today, appropriately.”