With new ruling, Sandy Hook families win over $1.4 billion from Alex Jones

Infowars conspiracy broadcaster Alex Jones must pay the families of eight Sandy Hook shooting victims an additional $473 million in punitive damages for defaming them, a judge in Connecticut ruled Thursday, bringing the total damages to nearly $1.5 billion.

Last month, a jury in Waterbury, Connecticut, awarded the families and an FBI agent implicated in Jones’ false claims $965 million in compensatory damages. The jury also awarded the families punitive damages in the form of lawyers’ fees, to be calculated by the judge. The $473 million awarded Thursday by Judge Barbara N. Bellis of Connecticut Superior Court represents those damages.

Bellis also essentially froze Jones’ personal assets, issuing an order saying that he was “not to transfer, encumber, dispose or move his assets out of the United States until further order of the court.” A hearing on the matter is scheduled for Dec. 2.

Christopher M. Mattei, a lawyer for the Sandy Hook families in the Connecticut case, cited the judge’s finding that Jones’ “depravity” in spreading lies about the 2012 school shooting and the victims’ families “establishes the highest degree of reprehensibility and blameworthiness.”

“Our hope is that this serves to reinforce the message of this case: Those who profit from lies targeting the innocent will face justice,” Mattei said in a statement.

He added that the judge’s order restricting Jones’ assets was “the first step in making sure that Jones personally will pay every penny he has to the families he spent years tormenting.”