InfoWars host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has been ordered to pay slightly below $50 million in damages to a pair of oldsters whose son was killed within the 2012 mass taking pictures at Sandy Hook Elementary.
Briana Sanchez/AP
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Briana Sanchez/AP
InfoWars host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has been ordered to pay slightly below $50 million in damages to a pair of oldsters whose son was killed within the 2012 mass taking pictures at Sandy Hook Elementary.
Briana Sanchez/AP
A Texas jury determined Friday that conspiracy idea purveyor Alex Jones pays one household $45.2 million in punitive damages after spreading lies concerning the 20212 bloodbath at Sandy Hook Elementary Faculty.
The jury’s resolution Friday got here the day after it awarded the dad and mom of slain first grader $4.1 million for psychological anguish, bringing the whole damages in opposition to the InfoWars founder to $49.3 million.
Jones spent years telling his viewers that one of many worst faculty shootings in American historical past was a hoax. Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, who introduced the costs in opposition to Jones, informed the court docket how he made their lives a “dwelling hell” after Jesse, their 6-year-old son, was gunned down within the assault.
“I can not even describe the final nine-and-a-half years,” Heslin mentioned. “The dwelling hell that I and others have needed to endure due to the recklessness and negligence of Alex Jones.”
Jones informed the dad and mom that he by no means meant to harm them. He additionally mentioned he ultimately acknowledged that the bloodbath certainly happened, regardless of having repeatedly mentioned yr after yr that the taking pictures was staged.
He argued that he is an opinionated persona training his proper to free speech. Jones’ hate speech and lies obtained him kicked off a number of platforms, together with YouTube, Twitter and Fb, NPR beforehand reported.
Nonetheless, his broadcast of conspiracy theories proceed to herald thousands and thousands of viewers each month, a few of whom went so far as to stalk and harass Heslin and Lewis, even making dying threats.
Jones’ firm, Free Speech Techniques LLC, filed for chapter through the trial, however the dad and mom and their legal professionals imagine he’s hiding thousands and thousands of {dollars}.
