Major update in Alex Jones’ Sandy Hook trial as court rules he must pay enormous damages
INFOWARS founder Alex Jones has been ordered to pay nearly $1billion for spreading lies about the 2012 Sandy Hook elementary school shooting.
Jones will have to hand over $965million to 15 family members who lost a child in the massacre and an FBI agent who was harassed by the conspiracy theorist’s remarks calling first responders “crisis actors”.
Several family members and an FBI agent who responded to the scene testified during the trial, and they were tormented by Jones’ followers who believed his claims.
The Infowars founder has falsely called the shooting, which left 20 children and six adults dead, a hoax orchestrated by the government to enact stricter gun laws.
Jones, who was not present in the courtroom, streamed the ruling live and seemingly mocked the decision on his Infowars show.
Several families in the Connecticut courtroom on Wednesday got emotional after hearing the enormous amount they’ll be receiving.
The plaintiffs’ attorney, Chris Mattei, asked the six jurors to “think about the scale of the defamation,” citing as one example Jones’ claim the families “faked their six or seven-year-old’s death.”
Jones’ defense attorney Norm Pattis said he intends to appeal the jury’s decision, saying he’s “never seen a case like this,” and called the decision a “dark day for freedom of speech.”
“We disagree with the basis of the default, we disagree with the court’s evidentiary rulings. In more than 200 trials in the course of my career, I have never seen a trial like this,” Pattis said.
During his Infowars show on Wednesday, Jones said there “ain’t no money” to pay the massive figure the jury ultimately awarded the plaintiffs.
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“Fifty-seven million, $20million, $50million, $80million, $100million, blah, blah,” Jones said on his show.
“You get a million, you get $100 million, you get a $50 million… Do these people actually think they’re getting any of this money?”
His company is believed to be worth between $135 and $270million, according to Austin Monthly.
The decision in Connecticut comes two months after a similar ruling, where a Texas jury determined Jones and his company should pay $45.2million in damages to Sandy Hook parents Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis – who lost their first-grader Jesse Lewis in the shooting.
Jones, who testified that he now believes the event is true, has declined to apologize to the families for his past comments.
Despite the court’s ruling, Jones indicated on Wednesday that he has no plans to stop his baseless remarks about mass shootings.
“They want to scare us away from question[ing] Uvalde or Parkland,” he said on Wednesday’s show.
“We’re not going away. We’re not going to stop.”