The man accused of killing seven people and injuring dozens more at a 2022 Independence Day parade in a Chicago suburb rejected a deal requiring him to plead guilty to seven charges of murder Wednesday in front of a stunned courtroom, just days before the second anniversary of the attack, the Associated Press reports. Appearing before a Lake County courtroom packed with family members of people killed and wounded in the mass shooting, Robert E. Crimo III, 23, refused to accept a life-sentence agreement in the Highland Park shooting.
Prosecutors had discussed an agreement requiring Crimo to plead guilty to seven counts of first-degree murder and 48 counts of aggravated battery with a firearm, prosecutor Ben Dillon told Judge Victoria Rossett. According to the plea, Crimo would be imprisoned for life and ineligible for release on the murder counts. The judge asked Crimo if the agreement described was what he discussed with his attorneys. Crimo remained silent, looking back, where his parents were seated in a front-row bench. Then he left to confer privately with his attorneys, only to return and the judge that he did not want to go foward. Crimo’s public defenders left court without speaking with reporters. After the hearing, Lake County State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart said only his team met with the victims in support andthat prosecutors will be ready for trial, set for February.