Alex Jones Slapped With Another $45.2 Million in Punitive Damages For Lying About Sandy Hook Victims

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A Texas jury ordered Alex Jones to pay an additional $45.2 million in punitive damages to the parents of Jesse Lewis, a six-year-old boy murdered in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, who Infowars spread conspiracy theories about for years.
The same jury decided Thursday that Jones and his media company Free Speech Systems owned Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis $4.1 million in compensatory damages for lying that the massacre was a hoax and its 26 victims “crisis actors.”
Those conspiracy theories, which were aired for years on Infowars, led to harassment and threats against the surviving families of Sandy Hook victims, 20 of whom were children.
The jury had already found Jones liable for defamation in a summary judgment last year. This trial was held to determine damages in one of the three lawsuits Jones is facing from Sandy Hook families.
Heslin and Lewis sought $150 million from Jones. A lawyer for the Infowars host asked the jury to limit damages to just $8, which would represent one dollar for each compensation charge they were considering.
When asked by Judge Maya Guerra Gamble what amount of damages he considered fair, Jones said anything more than $2 million would sink Infowars.
After the jury announced its decision on compensatory damages, Jones said the $4.1 million number was “more money than my company and I personally have” in a video begging his supporters to buy Infowars products.
There remain two more defamation trials — another in Austin and one in Connecticut — to determine damages owed in separate suits brought against Jones by the Sandy Hook families.