Man rejects deal to plead guilty in shooting

WAUKEGAN, Ill. — 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 a stunning courtroom scene just days before the second anniversary of the attack.

Appearing in a Lake County courtroom, Robert E. Crimo III, 23, refused to accept the agreement that prosecutors said would mean a life sentence for him in the Highland Park shooting.

Prosecutor Ben Dillon told Judge Victoria Rossetti that attorneys 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. He would be imprisoned for life and ineligible for release on the murder counts.

As family members of people killed and others wounded in the mass shooting watched, Rossetti asked Crimo if the agreement described was what he discussed with his attorneys. Crimo remained silent before looking back at his parents seated in a front-row bench.

Defense attorneys Greg Ticsay and Anton Trizna briefly spoke with Crimo at the defense table before Rossetti suggested they go back into a private room. When they returned, the judge asked Crimo whether he wanted to go forward.

“No,” he responded.

Many in the full courtroom had hoped to give statements in court Wednesday and were left baffled by the abrupt change.