James Fields Jr sentenced to life in prison by jury over Charlottesville car attack

James Fields, second from left, was pictured holding a black shield in Charlottesville hours before he drove a car into a group of anti-fascist protesters (AP)

A self-avowed neo-Nazi who killed a woman by ramming his car into a crowd protesting a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville should spend the rest of his life in prison, a jury has said.

The jury found James Fields Jr, 21, guilty of first-degree murder and nine other crimes for killing Heather Heyer, 32, and injuring 19 other people after the “Unite the Right” gathering in August last year.

Fields faces a number of other charges, with the jury recommending an additional 419 years for those.

The judge presiding over the case, Richard Moore, set a sentencing hearing for 29 March where he will decide whether to accept the jury's sentencing recommendation.

The jury's decision came after four hours of deliberation on Monday and Tuesday, which itself followed a round of testimony after Fields was found guilty.

Ms Heyer's mother, Susan Bro, tearfully told the jurors on Monday that Fields “tried to silence” her daughter.

Field's legal team never disputed that Fields was behind the wheel of a Dodge Charger that sent bodies flying when it smashed into a group of marching counter-protesters. They instead suggested during the trial that Fields felt intimidated by a hostile crowd and acted to protect himself.

The killing of Ms Heyer came the day after a torch-lit march through the nearby University of Virginia campus by groups of white nationalists and neo-Nazis, chanting racist and antisemitic slogans.

President Donald Trump was roundly condemned by both Democrats and Republicans in Congress after saying in the wake of the violence that there were “fine people on both sides.”

Fields, a resident of Maumee, Ohio, was photographed hours before the car attack carrying a shield with the emblem of a far-right hate group. He has identified himself as a neo-Nazi.

Fields also faces separate federal hate-crime charges, which carry a potential death sentence. He has pleaded not guilty in that case.

Reuters contributed to this report