Alex Jones must pay $49.3 million over Sandy Hook lies

A Texas jury on Friday said conspiracy theorist Alex Jones must pay $45.2 million in punitive damages to the parents of a child who was killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, adding to the $4.1 million he has to pay for the suffering he put them through by claiming for years that the nation’s deadliest school shooting was a hoax.

The total — $49.3 million — 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. But the trial marks the first time Jones has been held financially liable for peddling lies about the 2012 attack in Newtown, Conn.

After the verdict, Lewis said Jones has been held accountable. She said when she took the stand and looked Jones in the eye, she thought of her son, who was credited with saving lives by yelling “run” when the killer paused in his rampage.

“He stood up to the bully Adam Lanza and saved nine of his classmates’ lives,” Lewis said. “I hope that I did that incredible courage justice when I was able to confront Alex Jones, who is also a bully. I hope that inspires other people to do the same.”

Earlier this week, Jones testified that any award over $2 million would “sink us.” His company Free Speech Systems, parent of the Infowars website, filed for bankruptcy protection during the first week of the trial.

Punitive damages are meant to punish defendants for egregious conduct, beyond monetary compensation awarded to the individuals they hurt. A high punitive award is also seen as a chance for jurors to send a wider societal message and a way to deter others from the same conduct.

Barry Covert, a 1st Amendment lawyer in Buffalo, N.Y., who has no connection to the Jones case, said Friday’s high punitive award, added to Thursday’s compensatory award, amounts to “a stunning loss for Jones.”

“With $50 million in all, the jury has sent a huge, loud message that this behavior will not be tolerated,” he said. “Everyone with a show like this who knowingly

tells lies — juries will not tolerate it.”

Future jurors in pending Sandy Hook trials could see the damages in this case as a benchmark, Covert said; if they do, “it could very well put Jones out of business.”

Attorneys for the Lewis family had urged jurors to hand down a financial punishment that would force Infowars to shut down.

“You have the ability to stop this man from ever doing it again,” Wesley Ball, an attorney for the parents, told the jury Friday. “Send the message to those who desire to do the same: ‘Speech is free. Lies, you pay for.’”

An economist testified Friday that Jones and his company are worth up to $270 million.

Bernard Pettingill, who was hired by the plaintiffs to study Jones’ net worth, said records show that Jones withdrew $62 million for himself in 2021, when default judgments were issued in lawsuits against him.

“That number represents, in my opinion, a value of a net worth,” Pettingill said. “He’s got money put in a bank account somewhere.”

The money that flows into Jones’ companies eventually funnels its way to him, said Pettingill.

But Jones’ lawyers said their client had learned his lesson and asked for lenience, saying the punitive amount should be less than $300,000.

“You’ve already sent a message. A message for the first time to a talk-show host, to all talk-show hosts, that their standard of care has to change,” said Andino Reynal, Jones’ lead attorney.

Jones — who was in the courtroom briefly Friday but not present for the verdict — still faces two defamation lawsuits from Sandy Hook families in Texas and Connecticut that put his personal wealth and media empire in jeopardy.

Lawyers for the Sandy Hook families suing Jones contend that he has tried to hide evidence of his true wealth in shell companies.

During his testimony, Jones was confronted with a memo from one of his business managers outlining a single day’s gross revenue of $800,000 from selling vitamin supplements and other products through his website; this would approach $300 million in a year. Jones called it a record sales day.

Jones, who has portrayed the lawsuit as an attack on his 1st Amendment rights, conceded during the trial that the Sandy Hook attack was “100% real” and that he was wrong to have lied about it. But Heslin and Lewis told jurors that wouldn’t suffice and called on them to make Jones pay for the years of suffering he has put them and other Sandy Hook families through.

The parents told jurors they’ve endured a decade of trauma, inflicted first by the murder of their son and then by what followed: guns fired at a home, online and phone threats and harassment on the street by strangers. They said the threats and harassment were all fueled by Jones and his conspiracy theory, spread to his followers via Infowars.

A forensic psychiatrist testified that the parents suffer from “complex post-traumatic stress disorder” inflicted by ongoing trauma, similar to what might be experienced by a soldier at war or a victim of child abuse.

Throughout the trial, Jones has been his bombastic self, talking about conspiracies on the witness stand, during impromptu news conferences and on his show. His erratic behavior is unusual by courtroom standards, and the judge has scolded him, telling him at one point, “This is not your show.”

The trial has drawn attention to Jones’ activities beyond the Sandy Hook case. Mark Bankston, an attorney for the parents, told the court Thursday that the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol has requested records from Jones’ phone that his attorneys mistakenly turned over to the plaintiffs. Bankston later said he planned to comply with the committee’s request.

Last month, the Jan. 6 committee showed text messages and videos of right-wing figures, including Jones, vowing that Jan. 6 would be the day they’d fight for then-President Trump.

The committee first subpoenaed Jones in November, demanding a deposition and documents related to his efforts to spread misinformation about the 2020 election.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.