# Illinois man pleads guilty to Highland Park mass shooting that killed seven

An Illinois man charged in a mass shooting at a  that killed seven people and wounded dozens more pleaded guilty on Monday – shortly before opening arguments in his trial were supposed to begin.

Robert Crimo III’s attorneys said he would plead guilty as charged to 21 counts of first-degree murder – three counts for each person killed – as well as 48 counts of attempted murder. The victims ranged in age from eight to 88 years old.

Unlike a previous hearing, where Crimo appeared to have reached a plea deal but backed out at the last second, he informed the court he would openly enter a guilty plea.

“Do you still wish to plead guilty to all 69 counts?” Judge Victoria Rossetti asked Crimo before a courtroom packed with victims of the shooting and family of those slain in the attack.

“Yes,” Crimo answered.

Crimo’s mother, Denise Pesina, had a brief outburst in the courtroom and evidently tried to stop her son from pleading guilty.

She later told reporters that she believed the courthouse did not have standing to adjudicate the case, mentioning a federal court order without offering evidence of its existence.

Rosetti  said Pesina was not a party to the case and set Crimo’s sentencing for 23 April.

Nearly all of the 48 survivors from the shooting are planning to testify, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors had dropped 48, less serious counts of aggravated battery before jury selection last week.

The road to the trial was bumpy, with delays partly due to Crimo’s unpredictability, including his rejection of a plea deal that even surprised his attorneys. As potential jurors were questioned last week, he sporadically appeared in court, at times refusing to leave his jail cell.

Authorities alleged Crimo perched on a roof and fired into crowds assembled for the annual Fourth of July parade in downtown Highland Park, 30 miles (50km) north of Chicago.

Prosecutors had submitted thousands of pages of evidence, as well as hours of a videotaped interrogation during which police say Crimo confessed to the shooting. But the 24-year-old then pleaded not guilty.

His defense attorneys had declined comment ahead of the trial, which was expected to last about a month.

His father, Robert Crimo Jr, a one-time mayoral candidate, was  in connection with how his son obtained a gun license. He pleaded guilty in 2023 to seven misdemeanor counts of reckless conduct and served less than two months in jail.

He has attended his son’s hearings, sometimes making eye contact with him during court. He declined to discuss the case in detail ahead of the trial.

“As a parent, I love my son very much,” he said. “And Bobby loves this country more than anyone would ever know.”

Prosecutors planned to call multiple law enforcement officers and survivors of the shooting to testify. They also intended to show videos of Crimo’s statements to police. Some of the videos have already been shown in court as prosecutors tried unsuccessfully to have them thrown out.

Crimo’s erratic behavior contributed to court delays.

He fired his public defenders and said he would represent himself, then abruptly reversed. In June 2024, when he was expected to accept a plea deal and give victims and relatives a chance to address him publicly, he arrived at the court in a wheelchair and rejected the deal.

Residents in the wealthy Highland Park community of roughly 30,000 on Lake Michigan have mourned the losses deeply. Some potential jurors were excused because of their connections to the case.

City leaders canceled the usual parade in 2023, opting for a “community walk”. The parade was reinstated last year on a different route and with a memorial for the victims.

“Our community is once again reminded of the immense pain and trauma caused by the ,” the city’s mayor, Nancy Rotering, said in a statement ahead of jury selection. “Our hearts remain with the victims, their families, and all those whose lives were forever changed by that devastating day.”

The victims killed in the shooting included Katherine Goldstein, 64; Jacquelyn Sundheim, 63; Stephen Straus, 88; Nicolas Toledo Zaragoza, 78; Eduardo Uvaldo, 69; and the married couple Kevin McCarthy, 37, and Irina McCarthy, 35.

Survivors and their families have filed multiple lawsuits, including against the maker of the semiautomatic rifle used in the shooting and against authorities they accuse of negligence.

When Crimo rejected the earlier plea, members of his victims’ families were in attendance.

Among them was Leah Sundheim, the daughter of Jacquelyn Sundheim.

“All I wanted was to be able to fully grieve my mom without the looming trial, knowing that he was going to spend the rest of his life in jail,” she said at a news conference at the time. “And instead, we were yet again shown  complete and blatant disregard for humans.”

_Associated Press contributed reporting_

The headline of this article was amended on 4 March 2025 to refer to Robert Crimo III as an  man, rather than a Chicago man as an earlier version said.
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