July 26, 2024
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Highland Park shooting suspect’s trial date set for 2025

By Rosie Newmark - Daily Herald Media Group
Brooke and Matt Strauss, who were married Sunday, look toward the scene of the mass shooting in downtown Highland Park, Ill., a Chicago suburb, after leaving their wedding bouquets near the scene of Monday's mass shooting, Tuesday, July 5, 2022. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Brooke and Matt Strauss, who were married Sunday, look toward the scene of the mass shooting in downtown Highland Park, Ill., a Chicago suburb, after leaving their wedding bouquets near the scene of Monday's mass shooting, Tuesday, July 5, 2022. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast) (Charles Rex Arbogast/AP)

The man accused of killing seven people and injuring dozens more during Highland Park’s 2022 Independence Day parade will have his day in court next February.

Lake County Judge Victoria Rossetti set Robert Crimo III’s murder trial for Feb. 24, 2025, during a brief court hearing Wednesday.

The former Highwood resident is charged with executing a mass shooting from a downtown Highland Park rooftop about 10:15 a.m. July 4, 2022. The gunfire killed Highland Park residents Katherine Goldstein, 64; Stephen Straus, 88; Jacquelyn “Jacki” Sundheim, 63; and Kevin McCarthy, 37, and his wife Irina McCarthy, 35. Nicolas Toledo-Zaragoza, 78, of Morelos, Mexico and Eduardo Uvaldo, 69, of Waukegan also were killed in the attack. Nearly 50 people, ranging in age from 8 to 88, were wounded.

The 23-year-old defendant has pleaded not guilty to the charges. If convicted of two or more counts of first-degree murder, he faces mandatory life in prison.

The trial previously had been set to begin early next year, but was shifted to Feb. 26, 2024, after the defendant announced he intended to represent himself and demanded a speedy trial. When he reversed his decision and requested a public defender, that trial date was stricken.

Lead prosecutor Ben Dillon requested the trial take place this fall, in September or October, citing the time and resources the prosecution team had expended to prepare for a speedy trial.

Rossetti said the date will remain in February 2025, the original date, reasoning the defendant’s brief stint in representing himself does not warrant a change.

The defendant remains incarcerated in an administrative segregation unit at the Lake County jail. Authorities placed him there after they say he violated jail rules by using another inmate’s PIN number to call his mother after his phone privileges were suspended for threatening corrections officers.

He is scheduled to return to court April 24.

https://www.dailyherald.com/20240221/crime/highland-park-shooting-suspects-trial-date-set-for-2025/

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