Alex Jones verdict: Sandy Hook families say ‘good prevails’ as Infowars conspiracist to pay $1billion
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A jury has awarded the relatives of Sandy Hook victims a combined $965m in damages after reaching their verdict in Alex Jones’ defamation trial on Wednesday afternoon.
The six-person panel spent more than three days deliberating how much the Infowars host must pay in damages to the plaintiffs - including 15 family members who lost loved ones in the 2012 shooting and a former FBI agent who responded to the scene.
Family members openly wept in court as the individual damages amounts were read out for each plaintiff.
“Good does prevail,” Nicole Hockley, who lost her son Dylan in the massacre, said outside court.
The highest individual damages award was $120m, which went to Robbie Parker, who lost his 6-year-old daughter Emilie in the shooting.
The sum of $965m in damages comes after a Texas jury awarded nearly $50m in damages against Mr Jones in a separate defamation trial.
As the damages verdict was read out in court, Mr Jones told viewers on his Infowars site: “I want to be the billion dollar man.”
As the $965m damages verdict was read out in court, Alex Jones was asking for donations to meet his legal fees on his Infowars site.
“I want to be the billion dollar man,” he told his audience.
Full story below.
Alex Jones cheers as he watches verdict live on Infowars show
Jones calls the verdict ‘delusional leftist crap,’ asks audience for donations
‘We are going to enforce this verdict’
Chris Mattei, an attorney for the families, said outside the courthouse that the $1bn verdict shows “the harm and wreckage that lies like the ones he pushed can have”.
“We believe (the verdict) is historic, and we are going to enforce this verdict. We are going to go through whatever forum we have to… as long as it takes, because that’s what justice requires.”
Far-right extremist Alex Jones ordered to pay $965m
Even as his lies were on display in the courtroom for the whole world to see, Mr Jones continued to monetise the tragedy by mocking the judge and the so-called “kangaroo court” on his Infowars show.
Read our full write up after a jury awarded $965m to the Sandy Hook families.
Alex Jones will be forced to pay more than $1bn for his Sandy Hook lies
Verdict comes following four weeks of courtroom testimony where parents broke down in tears testifying about the toll his lies had taken while the conspiracy theorist ranted that he was ‘done apologising’
‘Alex Jones is finished’
“It took a jury in Connecticut to finally fell this beast,” writes Hannah Selinger for Independent Voices.
“No amount of fundraising can save Alex Jones now. One billion dollars is an insurmountable debt — as insurmountable, some might argue, as having to relive the death of your child over and over again in the public eye for almost an entire decade, without apology.
“Alex Jones is finished. Infowars is dead.”
As Alex Jones faces a $1bn comeuppance it looks like the good guys have won
The giant settlements against the Infowars conspiracist should give pause to those who wish to imitate him
What next for Alex Jones?
After damages awards of more than $1bn in two defamation damages trials, what comes next for Alex Jones?
A bankruptcy hearing for his company Free Speech Systems underway in Texas will go some way to determining how much the families can prise from the Infowars host.
An attorney for the Sandy Hook relatives says they will do whatever it takes to enforce the verdict.
Full story below.
What next for Alex Jones after Connecticut jury awards $965m to Sandy Hook families?
Alex Jones is worth an estimated $270m due to the financial success of his Infowars site
‘Everyone on the stand told the truth except for one’
In emotional scenes outside the courthouse in Connecticut, Robbie Parker said that “everyone on the stand told the truth except for one.
He asked Infowars followers to asked themselves: “What has this man ever given me, and what has he taken from me?”
Read the full story of Mr Parker’s appearance in the witness stand below.
Sandy Hook father recalls press briefing that made him top target of Alex Jones’ lies
Robbie Parker told the court that he had been waiting to set the record straight ‘for a long time’
The cost of entering a ‘realm of lies and deceit’
Sandy Hook families spoke emotionally outside of court after the jury awarded them nearly $1bn in damages on Wednesday.
“Everyone on the stand told the truth except for one,” said Robbie Parker, who the jury awarded $120m.
Bill Sherlach, whose wife Mary was killed at Sandy Hook Elementary, warned “Alex Jones’s wannabes” that there was now a cost of entering the “realm of lies and deceit.”
Sandy hook families warn against ‘wannabes’ following Alex Jones in ‘lies and deceit’
Consiracy theorist has now had more than $1bn in verdicts returned against him in two trials
‘Good does prevail’
Nicole Hockley, who lost her son Dylan in the 2012 shooting, told reporters that she had taken comfort from being with the other Sandy Hook families in court.
“I have always believed in the goodness of other people. And when I first started engaging with followers of Alex Jones back in January of 2013, I was looking for the good. And I didn’t find it. And I gave up. Until I decided to fight.
“Today, with this jury, who I have so much gratitude for listening so attentively... for hearing us, I’m so grateful to them.
“This is sending the right message that people are good, and that good does prevail. And thank you restoring my faith.”
Jones pays for his ‘realm of lies and deceit’
Sandy Hook families spoke emotionally outside of court after the jury awarded them nearly $1bn in damages on Wednesday.
“Everyone on the stand told the truth except for one,” said Robbie Parker, who the jury awarded $120m.
Bill Sherlach, whose wife Mary was killed at Sandy Hook Elementary, warned “Alex Jones’s wannabes” that there was now a cost of entering the “realm of lies and deceit.”
Sandy hook families warn against ‘wannabes’ following Alex Jones in ‘lies and deceit’
Consiracy theorist has now had more than $1bn in verdicts returned against him in two trials
‘I want to be the billion dollar man'
As the $965m damages verdict was read out in court, Alex Jones was asking for donations to meet his legal fees on his Infowars site.
“I want to be the billion dollar man,” he told his audience.
Full story below.
Alex Jones cheers as he watches verdict live on Infowars show
Jones calls the verdict ‘delusional leftist crap,’ asks audience for donations
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