Father who killed 3 children in 2022 sentenced to life in prison

ROUND LAKE BEACH, Ill. — A man who pleaded guilty to killing his three children in June of 2022 in Round Lake Beach, Illinois, was sentenced on Friday.

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Jared Karels was sentenced to life in prison without parole on Friday for the murders of his three children in 2022, according to WLS-TV.

Karels pleaded guilty but mentally ill in December, the Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office. said, according to the news outlet. He pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree murder, The Associated Press reported.

Guilty but mentally ill is where the defendant has a mental illness except in this case, they can differentiate what is right and what is wrong.

Karels, 36, reportedly admitted to investigators that he drowned Bryant Karels, 5; Cassidy Karels, 3; and Gideon Karels, 2, back June 13, 2022, the AP reported.

When officers went to the house for a welfare check, they located a note in the house for Karels’ estranged wife. The note said, “If I can’t have them neither can you,” prosecutors said, according to the AP. He was arrested after a police chase which ended in a crash. He was taken to the hospital after the incident.

After the crash, he reportedly told investigators that he killed the children and tried to kill himself, the AP reported. It was learned that Karels drowned the children, prosecutors said, according to WLS.

“Our thoughts are first, with the family today. This has been a devastating case for the family and community,” Lake County State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart said in a statement obtained by the AP.

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