A jury ordered Alex Jones to pay $49.3 million to the parents of a boy who was killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre.
RELATED: Alex Jones damages: $4 million for Sandy Hook parents, jury says
A Texas jury on Friday ordered Infowars' Alex Jones to pay $49.3 million in total damages to the parents of a first-grader killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, which the conspiracy theorist falsely called a hoax orchestrated by the government to tighten U.S. gun laws.
The amount is less than the $150 million sought by Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, whose 6-year-old son Jesse Lewis was among the 20 children and six educators killed in the deadliest classroom shooting in U.S. history. The trial is the first time Jones has been held financially liable for peddling lies about the 2012 attack in Newtown, Connecticut.
Jurors at first awarded Heslin and Lewis $4.1 million in compensatory damages, which Jones called a major victory. But in the final phase of the two-week trial, the same Austin jury came back and tacked on an additional $45.2 million in punitive damages.
» Subscribe to USA TODAY:
» Watch more on this and other topics from USA TODAY:
» USA TODAY delivers current local and national news, sports, entertainment, finance, technology, and more through award-winning journalism, photos, videos and VR.
#sandyhook #alexjones #trial
Yet congress is still allowed to insider trade.
@fiddysiks remember: everything you dislike is grooming.
@eric gisse it’s all a lie and if you disagree you are a groomer and that’s muh 1st amendment right!
@Charles Sacramento imagine not going off on rants about unrelated things
@Hunter Rokop do you think there are people behind the scenes staging this entire court case? i find that a big stretch
I don’t see that happening
She supports the current thing
Great job Judge.
wish the same would happen on their side of the aisle to it isnt a 2 way street tho
Can’t sue whom actually performed the act.
@RainWhenIDie because legally libel involves provable financial loss. Like you didn’t get a job or got fired over a probably false accusation.
They went the emotional distress route stating his words a decade ago inspired people to harass them to this very day. I think this is flawed left wing logic to the highest order, he should be able to speak his mind and if crazies do something extreme over it that’s on them. It’s about personal responsibility.
@RainWhenIDie a dangerous lie? Don’t question the narrative I guess
@Dr. House while they’re at it they should see his interview at ground zero and the one where he pretends to be reunited with his son at the LA X shooting
@Baron Vonsnazzy You are wrong though- libel, slander, defamation are not contingent only on financial losses. This can be part of it, but damage to reputation through false statements can be a cause for defamation charge. This is not a recent development or tied to the ‘crazy left wing’. It’s been around for centuries. So in this case the jury found Alex’s statements to be injurious, hence the verdict.
@Howard Questioning a narrative and ignoring the answers makes you willfully ignorant.
He pay or he have to pay? Does not seem like he has a choice!
Let’s wait to see what happens on appeal.
Probably not much. Courts don’t look lightly on people who use stall tactics such that Jones tried over the past few years.
Love it how the Judge did everything she could to not smile and burst out laughing when reading the verdict!
Yet I get bullied at work and nothing happens
Because every time you get bullied, you come back to say, “nothing happened”. Ha! Ha!
go to hr
Much like my entire school career.
To pay ? He’s moving to Florida and isn’t going to pay anything.
But anything more than $2 million will break him, remember. What a maroon!
Now do uvalde cops…or the ATF agents at Waco.
With 50mil theyll buy plenty of properties, forget their previous losses, and make more SH babies.
Saying something is a hoax gets you this much ? Wow
@DAVID LANGFORD okay you didn’t finish law school. glad we cleared that up.
@eric gisse GRADUATED LAW SCHOOL (JD 1994); MASTERS DEGREE PUBLIC POLICY & ADMIN 1996 and PHD/ABD 1999.
Exactly, you’re not gonna sue me if say you and your kids’ DNA are not a match. But imagine if I remind you the same everyday for several years!
Almost like asking anyone here what happened at the vegas massacre. Then show them the video recorded, and ask again.
why dont they show that crisis actor that was smiling and laughing on camera before crying about his dead son?
😂
I’m glad I’m not the one who remembers that. Guy was laughing and cutting up until he realized the camera was on him, then he suddenly became somber.
@P GT you might be able to find that on tik tok. Your right. Youtube scrubbed it
@Dehydrated Water 😂
Considering how easy you people are to manipulate, it probably wasn’t even related to the actual event. It was probably a random video with big letters making a claim and you all took it as fact.
That’s far more likely than what you actually claimed.
So the parents are getting paid twice?
The title is a lie but you dont care do you?
If you don’t have you can’t pay it. Sometimes it’s best to determine the net worth and deduct 25%. Better chance of getting something. We should sue everyone in DC daily.
that was an option but he wouldn’t comply with discovery.
I’m no fan but I don’t care who you are you should be able to say whatever you want and not be sued for speech.
Using their childrens deaths to make financial gain. Reprehensible.