A day after dozens of survivors and victims families detailed the bloodshed, panic and chaos that unfolded during the 2022 Highland Park Fourth of July Parade, Judge Victoria Rosetti is expected to hand down a sentence in the case.
The deadly mass shooting, which took place on the July 4 holiday three years ago, took the lives of seven people and wounded more than 40 others. It left young Cooper Roberts, now 10-years-old, paralyzed for life.
The sentencing hearing continues at 9 a.m. Thursday, when one final victim impact statement is expected to be read.
The suspected gunman, Robert Crimo III, will be sentenced for 21 counts of first-degree murder — three counts for each person killed — and 48 counts of attempted murder. Each first-degree murder count carries a maximum life sentence in Illinois.
Crimo, who changed his plea to guilty last month, is expected to be sentenced to life in prison without parole. The state of Illinois does not have the death penalty.
Crimo was not in court Wednesday as the hearings began. Crimo’s parents, who had attended most court proceedings, were also absent. Crimo’s father, Robert Crimo Jr., who served less than two months in jail for charges in connection to how his son obtained a gun license, declined to comment Wednesday.
Several survivors have also sued Crimo and gunmaker Smith & Wesson.
‘You took my mom’
Survivors and relatives of those killed addressed Crimo, who authorities said refused to appear in court or watch from jail.
“You took my mom,” said Leah Sundheim, the only child of Jacquelyn Sundheim, who was killed in the shooting. “I will never be able to summarize how simply extraordinary she was, and how devastating and out of balance my life is without her.”
Witnesses and first responders testified on the rescue of a child left orphaned and a “post-apocalyptic scene” of bodies in the street among abandoned strollers and lawn chairs.
“It went from watching a parade to utter chaos,” testified Dana Ruder Ring, who escaped with her husband and three kids. “We just had to keep going. We just knew that staying still was not a safe idea and we were terrified.”
Her husband frantically searched for the parents of a child covered in blood while seeing “bodies still smoking on the ground,” Ruder Ring said.
She learned later that the boy’s parents, Kevin McCarthy, 37, and Irina McCarthy, 35, had been killed.
Some survivors described how they now hate loud noises or are paranoid, scanning for threats around them.
John Straus, the son of Stephen Straus, said the shooting haunts him.
“There’s no closure, no sense to be made of it,” Straus said. “It is an open wound in our hearts that we will have to nurse forever.”
Crimo injured 48 people and killed seven, including the McCarthys and Sundheim; Katherine Goldstein, 64; Stephen Straus, 88; Nicolas Toledo-Zaragoza, 78; and Eduardo Uvaldo, 69.
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