Texas court cuts Alex Jones Sandy Hook award

A Texas appeals court on Friday cut a $50 million judgment against Infowars founder Alex Jones to $1.5 million in a lawsuit brought by the parents of a child killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, a major reduction in one of the legal penalties Jones faced for falsely calling the massacre a hoax.

The unanimous ruling by the Texas Third Court of Appeals does not affect a separate $1.4 billion judgment against Jones in Connecticut. But it marks a significant legal victory for Jones after he and his company, Free Speech Systems, were found liable for damages tied to years of false claims that the Newtown, Connecticut, shooting did not happen.

The Texas case was brought by Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, whose 6-year-old son, Jesse Lewis, was among the 20 children and six educators killed in the attack. Their lawsuit led to a 2022 verdict that was the first time Jones was held financially liable for spreading lies about the massacre, including claims that it was faked by the government to tighten gun laws.

The appeals court found that Heslin and Lewis did not show sufficient evidence that harassment inflamed by Jones’ hoax claims rose to a level that would allow damages above Texas’ $750,000 cap for each plaintiff. The ruling reduced the total award to $1.5 million.

During the trial, Jones portrayed the lawsuit as an attack on his First Amendment rights. He also acknowledged in court that the shooting was “100% real” and said he was wrong to have lied about it. Heslin and Lewis told jurors that an apology was not enough and urged them to make Jones pay for the suffering they said he caused them and other Sandy Hook families.

Jones’ trial attorney, Andino Reynal, said immediately after the verdict that Jones would appeal the amount of damages and predicted it would be reduced to $1.5 million.

Jones and Free Speech Systems have filed for bankruptcy, and those proceedings remain ongoing. The satirical website The Onion also moved to take over Jones’ Infowars platforms and turn them into parody sites.

Jones gave up the Infowars brand in April and moved to a new location, shifting his shows to new websites and posting them on his personal X account. The Onion has set up its own parody version of Infowars, posting videos that spoof Jones and donating some of its funds to the Sandy Hook families.