A jury ordered conspiracy theorist Alex Jones to pay $ 965 million in damages to the families of those killed in the Sandy Hook school shooting.
After a gunman killed 20 children and six staff at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut in December 2012, Jones accused the bereaved relatives of being actors who had faked the massacre.
Among those who testified in tears in a state court were the families of five pupils and three teachers who were killed. An FBI agent who was among the first responders also took part in the lawsuit.
Some of them hugged after the verdict was delivered. Jones was not present, but the classroom video played on a split screen during his show on his Infowars website.
During the final discussions in the defamation case, the plaintiffs’ attorneys claimed that Jones had used lies about the shooting to drive traffic to Infowars and increase sales of various products on offer.
Jones described the case as a “kangaroo court,” mocked the judge, called the plaintiffs’ attorney an ambulance chaser, and said the case was an affront to free speech.
But attorney Chris Mattei said the families suffered a decade-long campaign of harassment and death threats from Jones’s followers.
“Each of these families (was) drowning in pain and Alex Jones stepped on them,” he told jurors.
The daughter of Sandy Hook’s principal Dawn Hochsprung, who was among the victims, testified that people had sent rape threats to her home.
Grieving father Mark Barden said conspiracy theorists urinated on the grave of his 7-year-old son, Daniel, and threatened to unearth the coffin.
Read more: Who is Alex Jones?
Bill Sherlach, front right, whose wife Mary was killed, and other plaintiffs and their lawyers arrived in court on Wednesday.
Jones’s attorney, Norman Pattis, said during his concluding argument that the plaintiffs had shown little evidence of quantifiable losses.
“This is not a case of politics,” Pattis said. “It’s about how much to pay plaintiffs.”
Jones has now acknowledged that the shooting took place.
But during the trial he lashed out at “liberal” critics and refused to apologize to the families.
In a similar case in August, another jury found Jones and his company owe $ 49.3 million to Sandy Hook’s parents. That case took place in Austin, Texas, where Infowars is based.
Jones will also face a third trial, also in Texas, towards the end of the year.
It is not clear how much he can afford to pay. During the August trial, she said she could not afford a judgment exceeding $ 2 million.
However, an economist who testified in Austin claimed that Jones and his company were worth up to $ 270 million.
