Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones was ordered to pay a total of $49.3 million for claiming that the Sandy Hook shooting never happened.
A Texas jury believes conspiracy theorist Alex Jones should pay additional compensation to survivors of the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting, Reuters reports.
Jones must pay $45.2 million in punitive damages. This is an additional penalty if the court finds that the defendant’s actions or behavior are particularly harmful.
He was ordered Thursday to pay $4.1 million in “compensation.”
In total, Alex Jones has to pay $49.3 million in compensation to the parents of one of the children killed in the school shooting.
Staged shooting claimed
Twenty students and six adults were killed in a school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012.
Alex Jones is a well-known conspiracy theorist who claimed that the shooting never happened.
He made allegations on InfoWars that the school shooting was carried out by actors.
Parents of murdered children have been harassed by Jones’ supporters for several years. They talk about threats, attacks and shootings at homes and cars.
Therefore, the parents of one of the murdered children took the case to court.
The boy’s parents initially demanded $150 million in compensation and restitution.
We now believe the shooting happened
When Jones explained himself in court on Wednesday, he said it was irresponsible to claim the school massacre was a hoax.
He stressed that he is now convinced that the massacre did indeed take place.
During the trial, Jones was said to have said he had not sent text messages containing allegations about the 2012 school shooting.
But his attorney, knowing of an incident, may have sent all the text messages Jones has sent in the past two years to the parents’ attorney.
In this way, these allegations were refuted, and the case for the parents was strengthened.
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