Jury chosen for Highland Park parade shooting trial; Opening statements set for Monday

A 12-member jury plus six alternates are now in place to hear the trial of the Highwood man accused of fatally shooting seven people and injuring dozens of others during Highland Park’s 2022 Independence Day parade.

Attorneys completed jury selection Wednesday afternoon, and court will reconvene Monday morning for opening statements and the trial’s first witnesses.

Defendant Robert E. Crimo III, 23, skipped court again on Wednesday, as he had during the jury selection Monday and Tuesday afternoons.

He faces 21 counts of first-degree murder and dozens of other charges related to the July 4, 2022 attack.

Highland Park residents Katherine Goldstein, 64; Stephen Straus, 88; Jacquelyn “Jacki” Sundheim, 63; and Kevin McCarthy, 37, and his wife Irina McCarthy, 35, were killed in the attack. Also fatally shot were Nicolas Toledo-Zaragoza, 78, of Morelos, Mexico, and Eduardo Uvaldo, 69, of Waukegan.

Prosecutors say the defendant fired dozens of rounds from a military-style rifle into the crowd July 4, 2022, from a rooftop along the parade route.

He has been in custody at the Lake County jail since his arrest later that day. If convicted of two or more murders, he faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison.