AUSTIN, Texas – A Texas appeals court has reduced a $50 million damages award against Infowars founder Alex Jones to $1.5 million in a case tied to his false claims that the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting was a hoax.
The decision leaves untouched a separate $1.4 billion judgment against Jones in Connecticut, but it represents a major win for Jones in Texas after he and his company, Free Speech Systems, were found liable for damages over claims that the massacre did not happen.
In a unanimous opinion, the Texas Third Court of Appeals ruled that Sandy Hook parents Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis had not presented evidence showing that harassment fueled by Jones’ hoax claims reached a threshold that would permit damages above the state’s $750,000 cap.
Heslin and Lewis lost their 6-year-old son, Jesse Lewis, in the 2012 attack in Newtown, Connecticut, where 20 children and six educators were killed. Their lawsuit, and the 2022 verdict that followed, marked the first time Jones was held financially responsible for spreading lies that the shooting was staged by the government to justify stricter gun laws.
Jones’ trial attorney, Andino Reynal, had previously said he would challenge the size of the damages award and predicted soon after the trial that it could be cut to $1.5 million.
Jones and Free Speech Systems have filed for bankruptcy, and those proceedings are still ongoing.
