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Alex Jones railed against Sandy Hook parents on his broadcast as they testified against him at trial. The jury heard the insults in court.

Aug 3, 2022, 02:27 IST
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Alex Jones.Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call
  • Alex Jones insulted the father of a Sandy Hook shooting victim during a broadcast as the dad testified against him.
  • Jones went on the air as Neil Heslin testified that Jones has made his life a "living hell."
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Far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones railed against the mother and father of one of the children killed in the Sandy Hook massacre on his InfoWars broadcast on Tuesday as the dad testified against him at his defamation damages trial.

Jones appeared on InfoWars while the trial was ongoing and Sandy Hook father Neil Heslin was testifying against him.

During the broadcast, Jones referred to Neil Heslin as "slow" and someone who is being "manipulated by some very bad people."

Heslins' lawyer played the clip for the Texas jury as Scarlett Lewis was on the witness stand.

"It makes me feel astounded in a bad way — it's horrific, horrific, horrific," Lewis told the court when her attorney asked her how it made her feel watching the broadcast Jones made as Heslin testified earlier.

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Heslin and Lewis, the parents of slain 6-year-old Jesse Lewis, have sued Jones, the founder of InfoWars, and his media company, Free Speech Systems, for defamation over his false "hoax" claims about the 2012 Newtown, Connecticut, mass shooting that left 20 first-graders and six educators dead.

Wesley Ball, an attorney for Heslin and Lewis, brought Jones' broadcast to the court's attention before the jury entered the courtroom after a lunch break.

"While Mr. Heslin was on the stand, Alex Jones was on his radio show saying what I believe to be pretty much per se defamatory statements of Mr. Heslin," Ball told Travis County District Court Judge Maya Guerra Gamble.

Ball explained that during the broadcast Jones mentioned Lewis' name, which he said "goes directly to her claim for emotional distress."

Jones' defense attorney, F. Andino Reynal, said that he was "told that [the broadcast] goes on and [Jones] says he's sorry" as he argued against the clip being played for the jury.

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The judge ultimately allowed the clip to be played for the jury as Jones was in the courtroom.

Jones was not in the courtroom earlier Tuesday when Heslin took the witness stand and called Jones "cowardly" for not being there to hear his testimony.

"I think it's disrespect. I think it's a cowardly act of Alex Jones not facing me here in this courtroom," Heslin said.

Heslin told the jury that he has endured a "living hell" due to the "negligence and recklessness of Alex Jones and the propaganda that he peddled for his own profits and success."

In the aftermath of the Sandy Hook massacre, Jones repeatedly told his audience that the shooting was a "giant hoax" staged by the government with "crisis actors."

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He has already been found liable for defamation by the Texas court and a court in Connecticut for his depiction of the rampage — the deadliest school shooting in American history.

The jury in the trial will determine how much money Jones must pay to Heslin and Lewis — who are seeking $150 million in compensatory damages.

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