Alex Jones walks into the courtroom in front of Scarlett Lewis and Neil Heslin, the parents of 6-year-old Sand Hook shooting victim Jesse Lewis, at the Travis County Courthouse in Austin, Texas, U.S. July 28, 2022. Briana Sanchez/Pool via REUTERSRegister now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comAug 3 (Reuters) - An attorney for the parents of a child killed in the Sandy Hook massacre showed a jury video on Wednesday of U.S. conspiracy theorist Alex Jones telling his Infowars viewers that the jury in his defamation case was full of people who "don't know what planet they're on."Jones, founder of the Infowars radio show and webcast, is on trial in Texas to determine how much he must pay for spreading falsehoods about the killing of 20 children and six staff at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, on Dec. 14, 2012.Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, the parents of slain 6-year-old Jesse Lewis, are seeking as much as $150 million from Jones and his company, Free Speech Systems LLC.Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comMark Bankston, the lawyer for the parents, accused Jones on Thursday of approaching the trial in bad faith, citing broadcasts where he said the trial is rigged against him.Bankston showed video of Jones saying on air Friday that the jury pool was full of people who "don't know what planet they're on."He also showed jurors an image from Jones's show that Bankston said depicted Judge Maya Guerra Gamble, who is overseeing the case, on fire. Jones responded that the image shows Lady Justice on fire, not Gamble.Jones has already been found liable for defamation by Gamble, who issued a rare default judgment against him in 2021.Jones on Wednesday attempted to distance himself from previous falsehoods that the shooting was a hoax, saying it was “crazy” of him to repeatedly make this claim.Jones told jurors that the shooting was “100 percent real.”Heslin told jurors on Tuesday that the falsehoods Jones spread to his millions of listeners made his life “hell” and resulted in a campaign of harassment and death threats against him by people who believed he lied about his son’s death.Lewis said she believes that Jones knew that the hoax claims were false but spread them anyway because they attracted listeners and helped him market his supplements and other products.Free Speech Systems declared bankruptcy last week. Jones said during a Monday broadcast that the filing will help the company stay on the air while it appeals.The Sandy Hook gunman, Adam Lanza, 20, used a Remington Bushmaster rifle to carry out the massacre. It ended when Lanza killed himself with the approaching sound of police sirens.Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comReporting by Jack Queen; Editing by Amy Stevens, Noeleen Walder and Mark PorterOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Alex Jones claims defamation trial rigged, jurors don't know what "planet they're on".