The mass shooter who killed seven people in the 2022 Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Illinois, was sentenced Thursday to life in prison without the possibility of parole, with a judge describing him as “irreparably corrupt and beyond any rehabilitation.”
Robert E. Crimo III, 24, was given seven consecutive sentences of natural life in prison without the possibility of parole for the first-degree murder charges he pleaded guilty to last month.
“This court has absolutely no words that could adequately describe and capture the horror and pain that was inflicted on July 4th,” Lake County Judge Victoria Rossetti said as she announced the sentencing.
She described Crimo as having “a complete disregard for human life” and being someone who “is irretrievably depraved, permanently incorrigible, irreparably corrupt and beyond any rehabilitation,” according to the Associated Press.
ILLINOIS JULY 4 PARADE SHOOTING SUSPECT AGREES TO FLIP GUILTY PLEA ON MURDER AND OTHER CHARGES
Robert Crimo III appears before Judge Victoria A. Rossetti at the Lake County Courthouse on June 26, 2024, in Waukegan, Ill. (Nam Y. Huh-Pool/Getty Images)
Crimo refused to attend his sentencing hearing on Wednesday or Thursday despite Rossetti’s previous warnings that the case would proceed without him.
The attack also left 48 others injured.
Keely Roberts, whose 8-year-old son Cooper Roberts is paralyzed from the waist down, told the court that Crimo was “cowardly” for not attending his sentencing hearing.
“You will not hear my grief,” she said. “You are now irrelevant.”
HIGHLAND PARK MAYOR: ROBERT CRIMO III’S WEAPON WAS ‘LEGALLY OBTAINED’
The seat of Robert Crimo III, who did not appear, is empty at the defense table during his sentencing hearing at the Lake County Courthouse in Waukegan, Illinois, on Wednesday, April 23. (AP/Nam Y. Huh)
Crimo allegedly climbed on a roof above the Fourth of July parade in downtown Highland Park, 30 miles north of Chicago, and opened fire on spectators with a legally purchased Smith & Wesson M&P 15 rifle.
The seven victims who died in the shooting are Jacki Sundheim, 63; Nicolas Toledo-Zaragoza, 78; Irina McCarthy, 35, and Kevin McCarthy, 37; Katherine Goldstein, 64; Stephen Straus, 88; and Edwardo Uvaldo, 69.
Robert E. Crimo III speaks to Lake County’s assistant public defender Anton Trizna as he appears for a hearing before Judge Victoria A. Rossetti at the Lake County Courthouse in June 2024. (Photo by Nam Y. Huh-Pool/Getty Images)
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Crimo’s father, Robert Crimo Jr., a former mayoral candidate, was charged in connection with how his son obtained a gun license. He pleaded guilty in 2023 to seven misdemeanor counts of reckless conduct. He served less than two months in jail.
Fox News’ Stephen Sorace, Patrick McGovern, Audrey Conklin and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
