AUSTIN, Texas (AP) – Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones said Wednesday that he now understands it was irresponsible to call the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre a hoax and now believes it was “100 percent real.”
Speaking a day after the parents of a 6-year-old boy who was killed in the 2012 attack testified about the suffering, death threats and harassment they have endured because of what Jones has announced in his media platforms, the Infowars host told a Texas courtroom that he definitely believes the attack happened.
“Especially since I met the parents. It’s 100 percent true,” Jones said in his trial to determine how much he and his media company, Free Speech Systems, owe for defaming Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis. Their son Jesse Lewis was among the 20 students and six educators who died in the attack in Newtown, Connecticut, which was the deadliest school shooting in US history.
But Heslin and Lewis said Tuesday that an apology would not be enough and that Jones should be held accountable for repeatedly spreading falsehoods about the attack. They are asking for at least $150 million.
Jones told the jury that any compensation above $2 million “is going to sink us,” but added, “I think it’s appropriate for whatever you decide what you want to do.”
Testimony concluded around noon and closing arguments are expected to begin Wednesday afternoon.
Jones is the only person testifying in his own defense. His lawyer asked him if he now understands that it was “absolutely irresponsible” to push false claims that the massacre did not take place and that no one was killed.
Jones said yes, but added, “They (the media) won’t let me take it back.”
He also complained that he has become “angry as someone who runs around talking about Sandy Hook, makes money from Sandy Hook, and is obsessed with Sandy Hook.”
Under blistering cross-examination from attorney Mark Bankston, Jones acknowledged his history of conspiracy claims about other mass tragedies, from the Oklahoma City and Boston Marathon bombings to the mass shootings in Las Vegas and Parkland, Florida.
Bankston then took a dig at Jones’ credibility, showing an Infowars video clip from last week when a host, not Jones, claimed the trial was rigged and featured a photo of the judge on fire. Then came another clip of Jones asking if the jury was selected from a group of people “who don’t know what planet” they live on. Jones said he didn’t mean that part literally.
Bankston said Jones had failed to comply with court orders to provide text messages and emails for evidence gathering before trial. Jones said, “I don’t use email,” and was then shown a screenshot from another source that came from his email address. He replied, “I must have dictated it.”
At one point, Bankston informed Jones that his lawyers had mistakenly sent Bankston text messages from the past two years from Jones’ cell phone.
The lawyer also showed the court an email from an Infowars sales manager informing Jones that the company had grossed $800,000 selling its products in a single day, which would amount to nearly $300 million in a year Jones said it was the company’s best day of sales.
Jones’ testimony came a day after Heslin and Lewis told the Austin courtroom, where Jones and his companies are based, that Jones and the false claim he and Infowars pushed made their you live a “hell” of death threats, online abuse and harassment.
They led a day of testimony Tuesday that included the judge rebuking the bombastic Jones for not being truthful about some of what he said under oath.
In a riveting exchange, Lewis spoke directly to Jones, who was sitting about 10 feet away. Earlier that day, Jones was on his broadcast show telling his audience that Heslin is “slow” and is being manipulated by bad people.
“I’m a mother first and I know you’re a father. My son existed,” Lewis told Jones. “I’m not deep state … I know you know that … And yet you’re going to leave this courtroom and say it again on your show.”
At one point, Lewis asked Jones, “Do you think I’m an actor?”
“No, I don’t think you’re an actor,” Jones replied before the judge admonished him to remain silent until called to testify.
Heslin and Lewis are among several Sandy Hook families who have filed lawsuits alleging that claims of the Sandy Hook hoax pushed by Jones have led to years of abuse by him and his followers.
“What was said about me and Sandy Hook itself resonates around the world,” Heslin said. “As time went on, I really realized how dangerous it was.”
Jones skipped Heslin’s testimony Tuesday morning while on his show, a move Heslin dismissed as “cowardly,” but he did make it to the courtroom for part of Scarlett Lewis’ testimony. He was accompanied by several private security guards.
“Today is very important to me and it’s been a long time coming … to stand up to Alex Jones for what he said and did to me. To restore my son’s honor and legacy,” Heslin said when Jones wasn’t there
Heslin told the jury he was holding his son with a bullet hole in the head, even describing the extent of the damage to his son’s body. A key segment of the case is a 2017 Infowars broadcast that said Heslin did not have her child.
The jury was shown a school photo of a smiling Jesse taken two weeks before he was killed. The parents didn’t get the photo until after the shooting. They described how Jesse was known to tell his teammates to “run!” which probably saved lives.
Jones later took the stand Tuesday and was initially combative with the judge, who had asked him to answer his own attorney’s question. Jones testified that he had wanted to apologize to the plaintiffs for some time.
The judge later sent the jury out of the courtroom and strongly reprimanded Jones for telling the jury that he had complied with pre-trial evidence collection when he had not and that he is bankrupt, which he did not. has been determined The plaintiffs’ attorneys were furious that Jones mentioned he is bankrupt, which they worry will taint the jury’s decisions on damages.
“This is not your show,” Judge Maya Guerra Gamble told Jones. “Your beliefs do not make something true. You are under oath.”
Last September, the judge admonished Jones in his default judgment for his failure to deliver documents requested by the families of Sandy Hook. A Connecticut court issued a similar default judgment against Jones on the same grounds in a separate lawsuit brought by other Sandy Hook parents.
At stake in the trial is how much Jones will pay. The parents have asked the jury to award $150 million in damages for defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The jury will then consider whether Jones and his company will pay punitive damages.
Jones has already tried to financially protect free speech systems. The company filed for federal bankruptcy protection last week. The Sandy Hook families have sued Jones separately over their financial claims, arguing that the company is trying to protect millions owned by Jones and his family through shell entities.
___
Associated Press writer Paul J. Weber contributed to this report.
___
For more on the AP’s coverage of school shootings: