A judge asked Infowars host Alex Jones and his company to pay an additional $473 million to the Sandy Hook school shooting victims’ families, totalling Jones’ debt to $1.44 billion.
According to The AP, Connecticut Judge Barbara Bellis placed the punitive damages on the host of Infowars and his media company Free Speech Systems, building on his already $965 million sum determined back in October.
The October decision marked the second multimillion penalty faced by Jones after a Texas jury ordered Jones to pay $4.1 million in compensatory damages and $45.2 million in punitive damages to the family of 6-year-old Sandy Hook victim Jesse Lewis in August. Plaintiffs Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, his parents, said Jones’ claims made their lives a “living hell.” Jones admitted that he now believes the shooting was “100% real.”
Jones landed in this situation by spreading the misinformation that the December 2012 tragedy, in which 20 first graders and six teachers were killed, came from “crisis actors” who staged the attack to call for stricter gun control.
Jones’ conspiracy theory, which he peddled on Infowars, brought other plaintiffs to testify about aggression and harassment they faced from people who believed the falsehood.
After the previous damages were set, Jones described how he was “almost out of money,” asking his viewers to “counterbalance” the verdict by “flooding” the site with donations.
It was during the Texas damages trial that the entire contents of Jones’ phone was sent to plaintiffs’ attorneys – presumably in error. That caught the interest of the Jan. 6 Committee, which wanted to subpoena Jones’ text messages and emails for their Capitol riot investigation. The committee previously subpoenaed Jones in Nov. 21 and has been looking into his media support of the Jan. 6 riot and his relationship with Oath Keepers militia leader Stewart Rhodes.
The jury ordered Jones to pay $120 million plaintiff Robbie Parker, father of 6-year-old Emilie Parker, $55 million to David Wheeler and $54 million to Francine Wheeler, parents of 6-year-old Benjamin Wheeler, $57.6 million to Mark Barden & $28.8 million to Jackie Barden, parents of 7-year-old Daniel Barden and $73.6 million to Nicole Hockley and $81.6 million to Ian Hockley, parents of 6-year-old Dylan Hockley.
The $965 million award alone ranks among the largest civil lawsuit outcomes in American history.
