Defense wants Highland Park shooting suspect’s statements to police barred from trial
Attorneys for the man charged with fatally shooting seven people at Highland Park’s 2022 Independence Day parade argued Thursday that statements he made to police after his arrest should be barred from trial because he did not have a lawyer present.
But Lake County prosecutors said those statements should be admitted because suspect Robert E. Crimo III waived his right to remain silent and to a lawyer several times during extended interviews with police, who produced signed waivers to that effect.
Lake County Judge Victoria Rossetti will rule on the defense request Dec. 18, about two months before the defendant is scheduled to face trial on 21 counts of first-degree murder and dozens of others charges.
During Thursday’s court hearing, prosecutors played video clips from the interrogation showing officers informing the defendant that a lawyer was present and willing to talk with him. They also offered the defendant the lawyer’s business card on several occasions, as well as opportunities to make a phone call, which he declined.
“I don’t want to. There’s no need to talk to an attorney,” the defendant told Highland Park police officer Brian Bodden. He also acknowledged he understood his Miranda rights and had “heard them a million times.”
Bodden testified he told the suspect “he could stop and talk to his attorney any time.”
Assistant Lake County State’s Attorney Jeffrey Facklam said the defendant “knowingly, voluntarily and intelligently waived his rights.”
“It is the defendant’s decision,” Facklam continued. “It is not a right that can be invoked by a third party, not even a lawyer.”
Lake County Public Defender Greg Ticsay disagreed.
“When his retained attorney was not given access to him during interrogation, they violated his due process rights. Period,” Tiscay said.
For that reason Ticsay said statements his client made after 8:30 p.m. July 4, 2022 — the time the attorney arrived at the Highland Park police station — should be barred from trial.
Before the hearing began, Rossetti noted that the defendant’s attorneys had not filed any motions for an affirmative defense, whereby lawyers introduce evidence to show their client isn’t criminally liable. An affirmative defense may include insanity, intoxication or self-defense, among others.
Entering the courtroom accompanied by deputies, the defendant flashed a peace sign before sitting down next to his attorneys.
He is charged with killing 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 others were wounded in the mass shooting, which took place about 10:15 a.m. July 4, 2022. According to authorities, the 23-year-old Highwood man perched atop a downtown Highland Park building and fired dozens of shots from a military-style rifle into the crowd gathered for the city’s annual July 4 parade.
The defendant has pleaded not guilty and remains incarcerated in the Lake County jail. If convicted of two or more murders, he faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison.