Alex Jones was ordered Friday to pay approximately $45 million in punitive damages to the parents of one of the victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.
On Thursday, Jones was ordered to pay $4.1 million in compensatory damages to the parents of a 6-year-old boy.
Jesse, the son of Scarlett Lewis and Neil Helsin, was one of 20 first graders killed in the Sandy Hook school shooting.
The Infowars host had claimed that the Newtown, Connecticut, shooting was a hoax meant to increase support for gun control. He suggested it was staged or faked using actors.
“I ask that with your verdict, you not only take Alex Jones’ platform that he talks about away. I ask that you make sure that he can’t rebuild the platform. That’s what matters,” said the parents’ lawyer Wesley Ball.
Jones first called the compensatory damages a major victory, but the additional punitive damages bring the total to $49.3 million.
Jones testified that any award more than $2 million would “sink” Infowars’ parent company, Free Speech Systems, reported the New York Post. The company filed for bankruptcy protection at the start of the trial.
During the trial, Jones was confronted by a plaintiff attorney who revealed that Jones’ legal team had accidentally shared the contents of his cellphone and failed to claim them as privileged.
Jones testified that he had found no texts and emails about the shooting when the records were requested before the trial.
The parents testified on Tuesday about how the claims had affected them, saying their lives had been threatened and they were made the subject of harassment.
Jones admitted for the first time that the mass shooting was “100% real” and said it was “absolutely irresponsible” to falsely claim that it was staged.