The man accused of fatally shooting seven people during a July 4 parade outside Chicago in 2022 backed out of a plea agreement during a court appearance Wednesday where he was expected to reconsider his across-the-board not guilty pleas.
Lake County State's Attorney Eric Rinehart said in a statement last week that the prosecution and the defense requested a hearing Wednesday morning. "It is expected that a change in plea will be presented," his office said.
But Robert Crimo III declined to accept an agreement to plead guilty to 55 charges: seven counts of first-degree murder and 48 counts of aggravated battery.
In exchange, the prosecution said it would dismiss the remaining counts.
When the judge asked Crimo whether he had reviewed the agreement with his attorneys, he refused to speak.
Following a brief recess, Crimo was asked again whether he wished to move forward.
"No," Crimo, seated in a wheelchair, responded.
The July 4 holiday weekend next week will mark two years since the attack in Highland Park, a high-income city about 30 miles north of Chicago.
Crimo pleaded not guilty last year to 21 counts of first-degree murder — three counts for each death — as well as 48 counts of attempted murder and 48 counts of aggravated battery.
It wasn't clear what his exact intentions for the hearing were, but changing his plea wholesale could have thwarted an upcoming trial, which presented a probable ordeal for relatives of victims who might have had to relive events recounted in court.
Attorney Mike Bonamarte represents three shooting survivors, married couple Zoe and Stephen Kolpack and Zoe's father, Mike Joyce, in civil lawsuits against Crimo, his father and firearms businesses.
He said a priority for his clients is that Crimo be imprisoned until his last breath.
"Perhaps some sense of comfort would follow a guilty plea and life in prison without parole," Bonamarte said by email. "The fear, anger and sadness they have experienced and live with will never go away."
Though first-degree murder in Illinois can return a minimum sentence of 20 years in prison, Crimo, if he is convicted, could be sentenced to consecutive prison terms based on each count, essentially leading to incarceration for life.
Police said Crimo, 23, confessed to the attack, in which more than 70 rounds were fired from a rooftop position authorities described as a sniper's nest.
Crimo, who built a minor career on social media as the emo hip-hop artist Awake the Rapper, planned the attack, used an AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle and dressed as a woman to escape undetected, authorities alleged.
His father, Robert E. Crimo Jr., pleaded guilty last year to reckless conduct charges for helping his son obtain the AR-15-style gun. The defendant was too young in 2019 to obtain the weapon on his own; his father sponsored his son's application to obtain it despite threats he had made to harm himself and others, prosecutors said.
The seven people who were killed were Katherine Goldstein, 64; Irina McCarthy, 35; Kevin McCarthy, 37; Jacquelyn Sundheim, 63; Stephen Straus, 88; Nicolas Toledo-Zaragoza, 78; and Eduardo Uvaldo, 69.
An 8-year-old boy was paralyzed from the waist down.
The case will go to trial as scheduled in February, the judge said.
