AUSTIN, Texas – For 90 searing minutes in a courtroom Tuesday, a Sandy Hook mother brought conspiracy broadcaster Alex Jones face to face with the ravages she said his lies about the mass shooting that killed the his son had caused to his family and on the national discourse.
“Truth: Truth is so vital to our world. Truth is what we base our reality on, and we have to agree on that to have a civil society,” Scarlett Lewis, whose son Jesse , 6, was among the 20 first-graders and six educators killed in 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., told Mr. Jones from the witness stand.
Mr. Jones has questioned the events at Sandy Hook, but “you know that’s not true,” she said, looking at him as he moved to the defense table. “When you say these things, there’s a section of society that thinks you’re really dangerous.”
It was a notable moment in the long legal battles between the Sandy Hook families and the Infowars fabulist, who for years spread lies that the shooting was a government hoax and that the families were “actors” in the plot. Mr. Jones, who has regularly berated the families on air, has rarely appeared in the same room as them, although he has been found liable in a series of defamation lawsuits filed by the families of 10 victims.
The trial involving Mrs Lewis and Neil Heslin, Jesse’s father, is the first of three in which jurors will decide how much Mr Jones must pay for defaming the families. Mr. Jones has mostly avoided appearing in court. But through a scheduling accident as he prepared to testify in his defense, he ended up face-to-face with Ms. Lewis, who addressed him personally throughout his testimony.
The Sandy Hook School Massacre
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A devastating attack. On December 14, 2012, a 20-year-old gunman killed his mother and then entered the elementary school armed with semi-automatic handguns and a semi-automatic rifle. There he killed 26 people, 20 of them children, before committing suicide.
The push for gun control. Then-President Barack Obama vowed to “use every power in this office” to prevent such massacres from happening again. While legislative efforts to pass an assault weapons ban and expand background checks failed, a new wave of activism focused on gun control gained momentum after the shooting.
“Alex, I want you to hear this,” said Mrs. Lewis, fixing him in her gaze. “We are more polarized than ever as a country. Part of that is thanks to you.” Mr. Jones shook his head nervously.
Sandy Hook families have endured years of torment and threats after Mr. Jones, starting hours after the shooting, considered Sandy Hook a “false flag” operation planned by the government as a pretext to confiscate Americans’ firearms.
Business records released during the proceedings indicate that Mr. Jones has raked in more than $50 million a year selling dietary supplements, gun paraphernalia, body armor and doomsday prep equipment by peddling conspiracy theories to millions who listen to his radio show and online . Jesse Lewis’ parents are seeking $150 million in compensatory damages. More important than money, Ms Lewis said on Tuesday: “I hope to achieve an era of truth.”
At the heart of the trial, which will wrap up this week, is a June 2017 episode of NBC’s “Sunday Night With Megyn Kelly,” in which Ms. Kelly profiled Mr. Jones. In the broadcast, Mr. Heslin protested Mr. Jones of the shooting. He recalled his last moments with Jesse and said, “I held my son with a bullet hole in the head.” Mr Jones and a colleague, Owen Shroyer, then suggested to Infowars that Mr Heslin was lying.
Mr Heslin testified first on Tuesday. Quietly and pausing frequently to cry, she described her son as an energetic, voiced boy who liked to team up with his father to collect scrap and recyclables that he returned for spending money. When the gunman entered Jesse’s classroom, he yelled “Run!” during a break in filming. Nine children ran and survived.
Mr Heslin said conspiracy theorists had tried to contact him by phone, confronted him and pushed him into the street. Someone fired a gun at his house and his car. This spring, he said, someone drove past his house and yelled “Alex Jones!” and heard the sound of a shot.
Looking at the empty seat of Mr. Jones at the defense table, Mr. Heslin called his absence “a cowardly act”.
“The statements and remarks made by both Infowars and Alex Jones have tarnished Jesse’s legacy,” he added.
While Mr. Heslin stated, Mr. Jones was across town broadcasting his show. After seeing the testimony of Mr. Heslin on a courtroom YouTube channel called the grieving father “slow” and “manipulated by some very bad people.”
An hour later, Mr Jones appeared in court flanked by his spouse and a cadre of bodyguards. Ms. Lewis, who had seen the broadcast defaming Mr. Heslin during a break in his testimony, was waiting for him.
“It was hard for me to find words today. It makes me feel shocked, in a bad way,” she told Mr. Jones. “Horrible. Horrible. Horrible.”
Mr. Jones testified after Ms. Lewis, saying he had repeatedly tried to apologize.
Travis County District Court Judge Maya Guerra Gamble later admonished him for lying under oath in parts of his testimony. Mr. Jones had told the jury that he is “bankrupt,” though his bankruptcy filing has not yet been resolved and the families’ attorneys say it is a tactic to avoid upcoming trials. He also claimed that he had complied with court orders in the defamation lawsuits, when in fact his years of not producing documents and witnesses was the reason he lost them all.
“You’re under oath. That means things have to be really true when you say them,” Judge Guerra Gamble told Mr. Jones. He tried to interject, but she stopped him, “Don’t talk.”
After the judge left the courtroom, Mr. Jones approached Mr. Heslin and Mrs. Lewis and shook hands with them. Their lawyers pushed them away and Mr Jones exploded with anger, claiming the parents were “controlled”.