Judge: Accused Highland Park shooter gets some phone privileges restored
The Highwood man accused of killing seven people and injuring dozens more during Highland Park’s 2022 Independence Day parade appeared briefly in a Lake County courtroom Wednesday, when Lake County Judge Victoria Rossetti modified her December 2023 order revoking his phone privileges.
Rossetti ordered Robert Crimo III be allowed to speak by phone with his parents and siblings. The defendant’s phone privileges were suspended last year after authorities 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.
The defendant is charged with 21 counts of first-degree murder, alleging he opened fire on parade spectators from a downtown Highland Park rooftop about 10:15 a.m. July 4, 2022.
Killed were 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.
He has pleaded not guilty to the charges and is scheduled to face trial in February 2025. If convicted of two or more counts of first-degree murder, he faces mandatory life in prison.
Incarcerated at the Lake County jail, the defendant is next scheduled to appear in court on May 29.