US conspiracy theorist Alex Jones ordered to pay US$4.1 million for Sandy Hook hoax claims
- The Infowars owner had claimed that mainstream media and gun-control activists fabricated the tragedy and that the shooting was staged using crisis actors
- The parents of a 6-year-old killed in the 2012 massacre testified that Jones’ followers harassed them and sent them death threats for years
US conspiracy theorist Alex Jones should pay parents of a child killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre at least US$4.1 million for falsely claiming the shooting was a hoax, a Texas jury said on Thursday.
The verdict followed a two-week trial in Austin, Texas, where Jones’s radio show and webcast Infowars are based.
The jurors will next consider the parents’ request for as much as US$75 million in punitive damages from Jones for spreading falsehoods about the killing of 20 children and six staff at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, on December 14, 2012.
Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, separated parents of slain six-year-old Jesse Lewis, testified that Jones’ followers harassed them and sent them death threats for years in the false belief that the parents were lying about their son’s death.
During closing arguments on Wednesday, their lawyer, Kyle Farrar, urged jurors to end what he called their nightmare and hold Jones accountable for profiting off their son’s death.