Sandy Hook households search steep punitive damages after $1 billion Alex Jones verdict By Reuters

By Jack Queen

(Reuters) -Households of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook mass capturing on Friday requested a Connecticut choose to order Alex Jones to pay hefty punitive damages on prime of almost $1 billion a jury stated the conspiracy theorist owes them for falsely claiming the bloodbath was a hoax.

The households stated within the submitting that the “historic” scale of Jones’ wrongdoing within the case, his “utter lack of repentance” and clear intention to proceed spreading lies about them deserve the best punishment within the courtroom’s energy.

An lawyer for Jones didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark Friday.

A jury awarded greater than a dozen kin of victims $965 million in compensatory damages earlier this month after a trial in Waterbury, Connecticut, not removed from the place a gunman killed 20 youngsters and 6 workers members at Sandy Hook Elementary College in December 2012.

Jones and his Infowars website claimed for years that the capturing was staged utilizing actors as a part of a authorities plot to grab People’ weapons. The households say they suffered a decade of harassment and demise threats from individuals who believed the bogus claims.

The Connecticut jury discovered Jones and Infowars mother or father firm Free Speech Techniques LLC must also pay punitive damages, that are set to be decided by a choose after a number of days of hearings subsequent month.

Of their submitting Friday, the households supplied numerous strategies of calculating punitive damages in comparable circumstances. They stated that by one metric, they could possibly be entitled to $2.75 trillion primarily based on the variety of article impressions Infowars’ false tales garnered.

However the plaintiffs left it to Decide Barbara Bellis to find out the suitable quantity, which they stated ought to be the best in her energy.

Additionally on Friday, Jones’ lawyer requested Bellis to considerably scale back the decision, saying it’s “exorbitant, shocks the sense of justice and was influenced by partiality and prejudice.”

The Connecticut verdict got here a number of months after a jury in Texas awarded two Sandy Hook mother and father $49.3 million in damages.

A lawyer for Jones has stated he’ll search to chop the award considerably earlier than it’s finalized, calling it extreme underneath Texas legislation.

Free Speech Techniques filed for chapter in Texas in July, however consultants are uncertain the case will enable Jones to protect his belongings and keep away from paying the judgments.