Jury chosen for Highland Park mass shooting trial; opening statements set for Monday
Twelve jurors and six alternates have been chosen in the murder trial of Robert Crimo III, the man accused of killing seven people and wounding dozens more in a mass shooting at Highland Park's Fourth of July parade in 2022.
The final juror and six alternates were seated on Wednesday, the third day of jury selection. Opening statements will begin on Monday.
The 12-member jury includes a home hospice nurse, a man who owns a trucking company, a part-time college student dreaming of becoming a firefighter and paramedic, and a woman whose great grandfather shot two police officers in 1916.
Crimo did not attend the final day of jury selection on Wednesday. During the first two days of jury selection, he was in court for the first half of jury selection, but did not return after each day's lunch break.
The judge reminded people that Crimo does not need to be in court for the trial to proceed.
Some of the chosen jurors said they assumed Crimo was guilty after seeing initial news reports about the attack, but said they could put their opinions aside and impartially judge the case based on the evidence presented at trial.
However, some other potential jurors were dismissed after saying they could not set aside opinions they already had formed in the case.
Testimony and other evidence in the case is expected to last 3 to 5 weeks. Most of the surviving victims of the shooting are expected to testify, and the judge has ruled victim witnesses can be in court for the entire trial, even when other victims are testifying.
Crimo, 24, is on trial on 21 counts of first-degree murder, and 48 counts of attempted murder. As jury selection started, prosecutors dropped 48 counts of aggravated battery against him, as the charges essentially were redundant with the attempted murder counts.
Last year, Crimo rejected a plea deal that would have had him plead guilty to seven counts of murder and 48 counts of aggravated battery, and be sentenced to life in prison.
Those who were killed in the shooting included 64-year-old Katherine Goldstein, 35-year-old Irina McCarthy, 37-year-old Kevin McCarthy, 63-year-old Jacquelyn Sundheim, 88-year-old Stephen Straus, 78-year-old Nicolas Toledo-Zaragoza, and 69-year-old Eduardo Uvaldo.
Another 48 people were wounded in the shooting, including Cooper Roberts, then 8, who was left paralyzed from the waist down.
