A jury in Connecticut decided on Wednesday that conspiracy theorist Alex Jones should pay $965 million to people who suffered from his false claim that the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax, The Associated Press reported.
The verdict is the second big judgment against the Infowars host over his promotion of the idea that the 2012 massacre never happened, and that the grieving families seen in news coverage were actors hired as part of a plot to take away people's guns.
Wednesday’s verdict comes in a lawsuit filed by the relatives of five children and three educators killed in the mass shooting, plus an FBI agent who was among the first responders to the scene. A Texas jury in August awarded nearly $50 million to the parents of another slain child.
Jones was not in court but reacted on his Infowars show, saying, "Hey, folks, don’t go buying big homes."
The trial featured tearful testimony from parents and siblings of the victims, who told about how they were threatened and harassed for years by people who believed the lies told on Jones’ show.
Testifying during the trial, Jones acknowledged he had been wrong about Sandy Hook and acknowledged the shooting was real, though he was defiant both in the courtroom and on his show.
He called the proceedings a "kangaroo court," mocked the judge, called the plaintiffs’ lawyer an ambulance chaser and labeled the case an affront to free speech rights. He claimed it was a conspiracy by Democrats and the media to silence him and put him out of business.
"I’ve already said ‘I’m sorry’ hundreds of times and I’m done saying I’m sorry," he said during his testimony, according to AP.
Jones now faces a third trial, in Texas around the end of the year, in a lawsuit filed by the parents of another child killed in the shooting.
20 children and six adults died in the shooting on December 14, 2012. The defamation trial was held at a courthouse in Waterbury, about 20 miles from Newtown, where the attack took place.
In February, the families of five children and four adults killed in the 2012 massacre reached a $73 million settlement with the now-bankrupt gun manufacturer Remington and its four insurers.
The settlement came more than seven years after the families filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against Remington, the manufacturer of the Bushmaster AR-15-style rifle used in the massacre that left 20 children and six adults dead in Newtown.