Robert Crimo, who committed mass murder at the Highland Park Illinois Independence Day parade in 2022, pleaded guilty to all counts.

A jury had been empanelled. Just before opening arguments on Monday
March 3 2025, he changed his plea to guilty.

There were three counts on each of the 7 victims he killed, plus
numerous gun charges and attempted murder charges on victims who were
wounded. One little boy survived as a quadriplegic and lots of internal
organ damage.

I make sure to look for the shell casings embedded in the pavers at the restaurant on Port Clinton Square. He took a sniper position behind a
parapet on the roof of a single-story commercial building across from
the Square to easily fire into the large gathering of parade observers.

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On 2025-03-04 11:53 AM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:

Robert Crimo, who committed mass murder at the Highland Park Illinois Independence Day parade in 2022, pleaded guilty to all counts.

A jury had been empanelled. Just before opening arguments on Monday
March 3 2025, he changed his plea to guilty.

There were three counts on each of the 7 victims he killed,

Do you have any idea why they charged him with first degree murder THREE
TIMES for each of the victims? That doesn't make sense to me in the
slightest unless the article I read about this screwed up and meant to
say that he was charged with 1st degree, 2nd degree and manslaughter for
each of the seven victims. I know they do that sometimes if they're not
certain they can prove 1st degree murder so that they have fallback charges.

plus
numerous gun charges and attempted murder charges on victims who were wounded. One little boy survived as a quadriplegic and lots of internal
organ damage.

I'm also curious to know if anything is known about this guy's
motivation in shooting those people. The photo I saw seemed to show
faded face tatoos (or ones that had been "erased" by lasers) so I'm
wondering if this was some kind of gang thing?

I make sure to look for the shell casings embedded in the pavers at the restaurant on Port Clinton Square. He took a sniper position behind a
parapet on the roof of a single-story commercial building across from
the Square to easily fire into the large gathering of parade observers.

I'm a little surprised he surrendered. Mass killers like that tend to
either be taken out by the police or do themselves in.

--
Rhino

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Rhino <[email protected]> wrote:

On 2025-03-04 11:53 AM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:

Robert Crimo, who committed mass murder at the Highland Park Illinois >>Independence Day parade in 2022, pleaded guilty to all counts.

A jury had been empanelled. Just before opening arguments on Monday
March 3 2025, he changed his plea to guilty.

There were three counts on each of the 7 victims he killed,

Do you have any idea why they charged him with first degree murder THREE >TIMES for each of the victims?

I haven't read the charge sheet but you'd think a count of first-degree murder per homicide would be enough to charge with.

. . .

I'm a little surprised he surrendered. Mass killers like that tend to
either be taken out by the police or do themselves in.

I don't recall the circumstances of his arrest but it was out of state,
and he had more guns and ammunition in case he wanted to go on another
killing spree up there. He had planned to.

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On 2025-03-04 5:03 PM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:

Rhino <[email protected]> wrote:

On 2025-03-04 11:53 AM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:

Robert Crimo, who committed mass murder at the Highland Park Illinois
Independence Day parade in 2022, pleaded guilty to all counts.

A jury had been empanelled. Just before opening arguments on Monday
March 3 2025, he changed his plea to guilty.

There were three counts on each of the 7 victims he killed,

Do you have any idea why they charged him with first degree murder THREE
TIMES for each of the victims?

I haven't read the charge sheet but you'd think a count of first-degree murder
per homicide would be enough to charge with.

Me too but one article I read claimed there were THREE first-degree
homicides charged for each person who died. That doesn't make sense to me.

. . .

I'm a little surprised he surrendered. Mass killers like that tend to
either be taken out by the police or do themselves in.

I don't recall the circumstances of his arrest but it was out of state,
and he had more guns and ammunition in case he wanted to go on another killing spree up there. He had planned to.

Oh, so he got away after the shooting and then got caught later.

Do you have the death penalty in Illinois? I'm guessing not; the article
I read predicted he would never get out of prison but didn't take about execution.

--
Rhino

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Rhino <[email protected]> wrote:

. . .

Do you have the death penalty in Illinois? I'm guessing not; the article
I read predicted he would never get out of prison but didn't take about >execution.

One of our governors who went to prison (George Ryan, Republican, for a significant amount of bribe taking when he was Secretary of State
administering driver's services and an unqualified truck driver killed a
half dozen people) put a moratorium on the death penalty. It wasn't constitutional but no one had standing to challenge it. Eventually the legislature repealed it.

A notorious murder trial, the Ford Heights Four, was the political
scandal that led to ending the death penalty. A jury was chosen in
violation of the Sixth Amendment (prosecutors had used pre-emptory
challenges to eliminate blacks from the jury) and an exculpatory
eyewitness statement to police was withheld from the defense.

But there were other cases in which there had been a death penalty after
an unfair trial for various reasons, or when it had become obvious that
the defendants were actually innocent.

George Ryan ended up commuting or pardoning a great many men on death
row. I still think he was partly motivated to gain sympathy knowing the
federal prosecution he was facing.

Just think about how corrupt the justice system would have to be for a politician in my state to be forced to do the right thing.

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[snip]

just a note that Wikipedia has a good writeup:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highland_Park_parade_shooting

(no explanation as to why/how three counts of
first degree murder per victim. Just a link to:

"He is now charged with 21 counts of first-degree murder, according
to the Lake County State's Attorney's Office. There are three
first-degree murder charges per victim."

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/highland-park-parade-mass-shooting-suspect-indicted-117-charges-illino-rcna40332




--
_____________________________________________________
Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key
[email protected]
[to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded]

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Adam H. Kerman <[email protected]> wrote:

(prosecutors had used pre-emptory challenges . . .

Yes I know the word is "peremptory" but I cannot spell.

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On 2025-03-04 6:33 PM, danny burstein wrote:

[snip]

just a note that Wikipedia has a good writeup:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highland_Park_parade_shooting

(no explanation as to why/how three counts of
first degree murder per victim. Just a link to:

"He is now charged with 21 counts of first-degree murder, according
to the Lake County State's Attorney's Office. There are three
first-degree murder charges per victim."

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/highland-park-parade-mass-shooting-suspect-indicted-117-charges-illino-rcna40332

Thank you.

--
Rhino

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On 2025-03-04 6:24 PM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:

Rhino <[email protected]> wrote:

. . .

Do you have the death penalty in Illinois? I'm guessing not; the article
I read predicted he would never get out of prison but didn't take about
execution.

One of our governors who went to prison (George Ryan, Republican, for a significant amount of bribe taking when he was Secretary of State administering driver's services and an unqualified truck driver killed a
half dozen people) put a moratorium on the death penalty. It wasn't constitutional but no one had standing to challenge it. Eventually the legislature repealed it.

A notorious murder trial, the Ford Heights Four, was the political
scandal that led to ending the death penalty. A jury was chosen in
violation of the Sixth Amendment (prosecutors had used pre-emptory
challenges to eliminate blacks from the jury) and an exculpatory
eyewitness statement to police was withheld from the defense.

But there were other cases in which there had been a death penalty after
an unfair trial for various reasons, or when it had become obvious that
the defendants were actually innocent.

George Ryan ended up commuting or pardoning a great many men on death
row. I still think he was partly motivated to gain sympathy knowing the federal prosecution he was facing.

Just think about how corrupt the justice system would have to be for a politician in my state to be forced to do the right thing.

A thing I've seen many times over the years has been the statement that
the institutions in Country X are notoriously corrupt; this statement
always seems to contain the unspoken follow-on "unlike MY country". But
it's become increasingly clear to me that EVERY country has corruption,
even mine and yours. Nobody gets to say "I live in a perfectly honest
country"; the best we can say is that "my country is more honest than
many" (or, in some cases, "at least my country isn't the MOST corrupt in
the world").

It's a shame. I could see a role for an institution designed to root out corruption on an ongoing basis in EVERY country. We could all do better
in that department.

From what I read in Ryan's wiki article, he really didn't get hit too
hard compared to what could have happened; just a few years in prison
and another few months under house arrest. He's apparently still alive
today.

--
Rhino

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