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On Thursday, Infowars host Alex Jones was ordered by a Texas jury to pay $4 million in damages to Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, the parents of a 6-year-old who died in the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary school, in which gunman Adam Lanza killed 28 people. Most of the victims were children.
Over the years, Alex Jones has gained a reputation as a conspiracy theorist, considering various mass shootings as staged government hoaxes. According to Jones, the victims were crisis actors who were used to create a sense of uproar that would ultimately tighten gun laws. Jones claimed that the government's idea to stage these elaborate hoaxes was to make the American public easier to control.
The allegations by Alex Jones triggered several instances of protest, as he claimed the young victims of the Sandy Hook massacre were simply tools used by the US government.
Parents like Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis have demanded compensation, claiming that the Infowars host reportedly undermined their loss and subjected them to harassment by Jones' supporters.
The trial of Alex Jones
According to USA Today, Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis demanded $150 million in compensatory damage for the defamatory claims Jones made about the Sandy Hook massacre.
In court, Heslin described the gravity of the harassment the parents faced.
He said:
"I can't even describe the last nine and a half years, the living hell that I and others have had to endure because of the recklessness and negligence of Alex Jones."
On Wednesday, it was discovered the trial had taken a sharp turn, as it was revealed Jones' attorneys had mistakenly sent two years of text messages and emails to the opposing legal team.
According to the texts, Jones allegedly made far more money from Infowars than he initially revealed. This was astonishing as he had previously claimed that the $150 million demanded by the parents would force him into bankruptcy.
On Wednesday, Jones told the court that he did not believe Sandy Hook was a hoax. However, it doesn't end there, as several parents, survivors, and even an FBI agent have filed lawsuits against Jones, claiming that he should be taught a lesson about spreading such severe levels of misinformation and disinformation.
Mark Bankston, an attorney representing numerous parents, spoke of how the current trial was just the beginning.
Bankston said:
“We aren’t done folks. We knew coming into this case it was necessary to shoot for the moon to get to understand we were serious and passionate. After tomorrow, he’s going to owe a lot more."
Court records revealed that between 2015 and 2018, Jones made $165 million selling items like tactical and survivalist gear on the Infowars website. It is alleged that at least a part of his consumer base emerged from his promotion of conspiracy theories, such as the ones regarding the massacre in Sandy Hook.
