Criminal Justice
Parade shooter signed his trial waiver ‘Donald Trump;’ will it make a difference?
Robert Crimo III listens as potential jurors are questioned for his trial at the Lake County Courthouse on Feb. 25 in Waukegan, Illinois. (Photo by Brian Hill/The Daily Herald via the Associated Press)
An Illinois man accused of killing seven people and wounding 48 others at a 2022 Fourth of July parade in suburban Chicago pleaded guilty to all charges Monday, but he did not sign his name to a trial waiver.
Robert Crimo III of Illinois signed his name as “Donald Trump,” but that shouldn’t affect his oral guilty plea, legal experts told the Chicago Sun-Times.
“He can sign Mickey Mouse or Donald Trump,” Richard Kling, a professor at the Chicago-Kent College of Law at the Illinois Institute of Technology, told the newspaper. The important thing, Kling said, is the transcript of Crimo’s oral guilty plea showing that a judge “asked the magic questions, and he gave the magic answers.”
Defense lawyer Adam Sheppard agreed with that assessment but said the Trump signature could raise questions about Crimo’s ability to understand he was waiving trial.
“The fact that he used the president’s name may raise an eyebrow in terms of fitness,” Sheppard told the Chicago Sun-Times.
During the plea hearing, prosecutors summarized key evidence against Crimo in the 2022 shooting in Highland Park, Illinois, according to previous coverage by the Lake County News-Sun via the Chicago Tribune. He was spotted dropping a semiautomatic rifle covered in cloth after the shooting, DNA linked him to the crime, and he had confessed on videotape.
Still ongoing are civil lawsuits filed by victims and their families. Defendants include Crimo’s father, who sponsored his son’s Firearm Owner’s Identification card, and the Illinois State Police, which approved the application. Other defendants include Smith & Wesson and the companies that sold the weapon.
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