The man accused of killing seven people with a high-powered rifle during a Fourth of July parade in suburban Chicago in 2022 pleaded guilty Monday, just as opening statements were expected to begin in his murder trial.

The man, Robert Crimo III, pleaded guilty to 69 criminal counts, including murder and attempted murder, which will result in a sentence of at least seven consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole.

“Is this what you want to do today, plead guilty?” Judge Victoria A. Rossetti of Lake County, Ill., circuit court asked Crimo, who sat expressionless in court, wearing a suit and tie and staring straight ahead.

“Yes,” Crimo answered when Rossetti asked if he understood what had been explained to him about his plea.

The surprise plea averted a jury trial in a crime that shocked Highland Park, Ill., a lakefront suburb of Chicago. Prosecutors said Crimo climbed onto a rooftop in downtown Highland Park on July 4, 2022, and sprayed bullets onto the crowd at the parade below. He managed to escape during the chaos, but was apprehended in a nearby town hours later.

Sentencing will come April 23, but Crimo is certain to spend the rest of his life behind bars. Prosecutors said survivors would get the chance to address Crimo at the sentencing.

Convicted Va. officer granted clemency

Days after a judge sentenced a Virginia police officer to prison in the fatal shooting of an unarmed man accused of stealing sunglasses, the state’s Republican governor granted the fired officer clemency, meaning he won’t have to serve further time behind bars.

Wesley Shifflett, 36, was sentenced Friday to three years in prison after he was convicted of recklessly handling a firearm during the Feb. 22, 2023, shooting of Timothy McCree Johnson. The jury acquitted him of involuntary manslaughter.

Gov. Glenn Youngkin granted Shifflett clemency on Sunday, removing his prison requirement but keeping intact his felony conviction.

“I am convinced that the court’s sentence of incarceration is unjust and violates the cornerstone of our justice system — that similarly situated individuals receive proportionate sentences,” Youngkin, a Republican, said Sunday. In his statement, Youngkin referred to sentencing guidelines recommending no incarceration for Shifflett that were proposed by a probation and parole officer, which is a routine practice in felony criminal sentencing.

Johnson’s mother, Melissa Johnson, said she felt Youngkin’s decision validated Shifflett’s killing of her son.

Winds ease, helping Carolina firefighters

Lighter winds Monday helped crews in South Carolina and North Carolina battle wildfires that caused evacuations and threatened hundreds of homes over the weekend.

Hundreds of firefighters from across the state managed to keep the massive blaze in Horry County near Myrtle Beach, S.C., from destroying any homes despite social media videos of orange skies at night and flames engulfing pine trees just yards away.

The fire burned 2.5 square miles. It was the biggest fire in the area since a 2009 wildfire nearby did $42 million in damage and burned down about 75 homes.

Court turns back free-speech argument

The Supreme Court said Monday it won’t hear a challenge from conservative college students who say their freedom of speech is violated by a university program for reporting allegations of bias.

Two of the nine justices, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, publicly said they would have heard the case.

The students say Indiana University’s bias-response team stifles speech on campus by allowing anonymous reports about things that appear prejudiced or demeaning.

The university says the program is aimed at education and support, and the two-person team doesn’t dole out punishment.

Man drives into crowd in Germany, killing 2

An 83-year-old woman and a 54-year-old man were killed and 11 others were injured — five severely — when a man drove a car into a lunch-hour crowd in the southwestern German city of Mannheim on Monday, authorities said.

The driver is a 40-year-old German citizen who lived in neighboring Ludwigshafen, police and the public attorney said Monday evening, adding that they did not think the man had a political motive.

Police arrested the man, who was not named publicly, soon after the event and said they thought he was the only person involved. They said they believed the act was deliberate and Monday night were searching the man’s home as well as his internet history to help understand his motive.

There were more than 300 police officers on the scene immediately after the attack.

Dolly Parton’s husband, Carl Dean, dies at 82

Carl Dean, an asphalt paver who met his future wife, Dolly Parton, outside a Nashville, Tenn., laundromat more than six decades ago and quietly championed her as she rose to superstardom, died on Monday. He was 82.

Parton announced his death in a statement shared on social media. No cause was given.

While his wife was a world-famous star, Dean was a private man who kept a low profile. In a 2020 interview with Entertainment Tonight, Parton said her husband had never wanted to be in the spotlight.

“It’s just not who he is,” Parton said. “He’s like, a quiet, reserved person and he figured if he ever got out there in that, he’d never get a minute’s peace and he’s right about that.”

While Parton became a country superstar, he pursued a quiet life owning an asphalt-paving business.

The couple met in 1964, according to Parton’s website, when Parton was 18 and Dean was 21. They married two years later on Memorial Day in 1966 in Ringgold, Ga., with only Parton’s mother, a preacher and his wife in attendance.

Parton and Dean lived on a farm outside Nashville for decades.

— From news services