Alex Jones ordered to pay $45.2M more in Sandy Hook suit
(NewsNation) — Alex Jones will be paying a lot more than $4 million to the parents of Sandy Hook victims.
The jury ordered him Friday to pay an additional $45.2 million in punitive damages, on top of the $4.1 million they awarded on Thursday.
Jones lost a defamation lawsuit after he propagated conspiracies that the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre was a hoax and the families involved were paid actors.
Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis brought the suit against Jones after they say his Info Wars platform spread the lies and lead to people sending them death threats. Their son, Jessie Lewis, was one of the 19 children who died in the 2012 attack. He was six years old.
Jones said on the stand during the trial that he now believed the massacre was “100 percent real.”
Heslin and Lewis were seeking $150 million. The total Jones was ordered to pay is just more than $49 million.
Whether Jones will ever be able to pay the damages has yet to be determined. He said during the trial that any amount above $2 million would “sink” his company, Free Speech Systems. But an economist hired by Heslin and Lewis testified the company could be worth up to $270 million.
Jones still faces defamation suits in Texas and Connecticut.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated.