Waterbury, Connecticut – A Connecticut jury is set to hear evidence Tuesday at a trial to decide how much money conspiracy theorist Alex Jones should pay relatives of the Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting victims for spreading a lie that the massacre was a hoax.
The trial is being held in Waterbury, less than 20 miles from Newtown, where 26 children and teachers were shot dead in 2012.
It is the second trial of its kind for Jones, who was ordered by a Texas jury last month to pay nearly $50 million to the parents of one of the murdered children.
A six-member jury and several alternates will decide how much the conspiracy theorist must pay the relatives of eight victims and the FBI agent who responded to the school. Judge Barbara Bellis found Jones liable without trial last year after he failed to turn over documents to the families’ attorney.
Jones is not expected to attend the trial on Tuesday. On his show Monday, he said he will be traveling to Connecticut next week.
(Video from previous coverage featured in the player above)
The trial is expected to last about a month and provide testimony from both Jones and the families.
The families of Sandy Hook and former FBI agent William Aldenburg say they were confronted and harassed for years by people who believed Jones’ false claim that the shootings were by actors in crises as part of a plot to extract people’s weapons.
Some say strangers videotaped them and their surviving children. They have also been subjected to death threats and abusive comments on social media. Some families have moved from Newtown to avoid harassment. They accuse Jones of inflicting psychological and emotional harm on them.
Jones, whose website and brand Infowars is based in Austin, Texas, has been banned from YouTube, Facebook and Spotify for violating hate speech policies.
Jones now says he believes the shooting was real. At the Texas trial, he testified that he realized what he said was irresponsible, that it hurt people’s feelings and apologized.
However, he continued to insist that his comments were protected by freedom of expression. He views the lawsuits as an attempt to silence him and put him out of business.
Jones’ lawyers say he plans to appeal his sentence in Texas. Jones will also face a third trial in Texas involving the parents of another murdered child.
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