Alex Jones ordered to pay Sandy Hook parents more than $4M

|

August 4th, 2022

In this Aug 3, 2022 file photo, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones attempts to answer questions about his emails during trial at the Travis County Courthouse in Austin. An attorney representing two parents who sued Jones over his false claims about the Sandy Hook massacre says the U.S. House Jan. 6 committee has requested two years’ worth of records from Jones’ phone. Attorney Mark Bankston said in court Thursday, Aug. 4, 2022 that the committee investigating the attack on the U.S. Capitol has requested the digital records. (Briana Sanchez/Austin American-Statesman via AP, Pool)

A Texas jury on Thursday ordered conspiracy theorist Alex Jones to pay more than $4 million in compensatory damages to the parents of a 6-year-old boy who was killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, marking the first time the Infowars host has been held financially liable for repeatedly claiming the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history was a hoax.

The Austin jury must still decide how much the Infowars host must pay in punitive damages to Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, whose son Jesse Lewis was among the 20 children and six educators who were killed in the 2012 attack in Newtown, Connecticut.

The parents had sought at least $150 million in compensation for defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Jones’ attorney asked the jury to limit damages to $8 — one dollar for each of the compensation charges they are considering — and Jones himself said any award over $2 million “would sink us.”

Related

Top Stories