Alex Jones has claimed a legal win after a Texas appeals court sharply reduced the amount he must pay to the family of a child killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, cutting the award from roughly $50 million to about $6 million.
The Infowars founder had been ordered to compensate relatives of victims after repeatedly spreading the false claim that the massacre, one of the deadliest school shootings in US history, was a hoax.
In a unanimous ruling, the Texas Third Court of Appeals said Jones can be required to pay only around $6 million, pointing to state laws that place limits on certain lawsuit damages.
The appeals court kept in place more than $4.1 million in compensatory damages that a jury awarded to Sandy Hook parents Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis for defamation and emotional distress.
However, the ruling dramatically reduced the original judgment by lowering the $45 million punitive damages award to $1.5 million, bringing it in line with Texas’s $750,000 cap for each plaintiff.
The court concluded that Heslin and Lewis had not provided evidence showing that the harassment they endured after Jones’s hoax claims met the legal standard needed to go beyond that cap.
The judges also found that the trial court had wrongly permitted the parents to pursue increased damages after the trial had ended.
Heslin and Lewis’s six-year-old son, Jesse Lewis, was among the children killed in the Sandy Hook attack.
Alex Jones (pictured) claimed victory in a Texas Court, where judges cut his payment to families of victims of the 2012 school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary from $50million to just $6million
Attorney Mark Bankston (pictured third from left) and members of the families pose in 2022 following the initial judgement against Jones. Neil Heslin (pictured center) and Scarlett Lewis (pictured second from right) were each awarded $750,000 as part of the new decision
Their lawsuit against Jones and the 2022 verdict marked the first time he was held financially liable for peddling lies about the massacre, claiming it was faked by the government to tighten gun laws.
The ruling does not affect a separate $1.25 billion judgment against Jones in Connecticut, where he was also found liable for defaming and causing emotional distress to relatives of the 20 first-graders and six educators killed in the Newtown shooting.
Friday’s ruling did not throw out the trial court’s finding of defamation against Jones. Still, he called it ‘a gigantic victory for the First Amendment,’ and said he will continue to appeal the case to the state Supreme Court to get the remaining damages thrown out.
‘I got lawyers who are good constitutional lawyers and they are not backing down,’ Jones said.
Jones has already tried to appeal the Connecticut judgment to the Supreme Court but was denied last year.
Mark Bankston, an attorney for Heslin and Lewis in the Texas lawsuit, shrugged off the appeals court ruling as ‘irrelevant’ given that Jones still faces massive financial judgments in Connecticut.
‘The families care not at all about this irrelevant ruling which affects only two of the 19 claims they all share. Jones still faces over a billion dollars of liability, so this changes absolutely nothing. All it does is highlight the absurdity of Texas law,’ Bankston said.
The punishing financial verdicts against Jones and his company, Free Speech Systems, in recent years have forced him into bankruptcy, led to some of his personal property being put up for auction and led to him leaving his Infowars platform.
Jones has already tried to appeal the Connecticut judgment to the Supreme Court but was denied last year
The lawyers representing the families of the victims of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary speak to the media in Waterbury, Conn, October 12, 2022
For decades, he used the platform to push conspiracy theories about the United Nations, the federal government, gun control and more.
Sandy Hook families have yet to collect any money from Jones, who has waged lengthy appeals in state and bankruptcy courts as his company faces liquidation.
He remains on air after moving onto new websites and streaming platforms.
Jones portrayed the lawsuit as an attack on his First Amendment rights, but conceded during the trial that the shootings were ‘100 percent real’ and that he was wrong to have lied about them.
At the Texas and Connecticut trials, victims´ relatives testified that Jones´ followers – believing his claims that the shooting didn´t happen – subjected them to death and rape threats, in-person harassment and abusive comments on social media.
Jones argued there was no proof that linked him to those actions.
Heslin and Lewis told jurors that an apology wouldn´t suffice and initially called on them to make Jones pay more than $150 million for the years of suffering he has put them and other Sandy Hook families through.
Almost immediately after the punitive damages in Texas were announced, Jones’ trial attorney predicted the award would be reduced to $1.5 million on appeal.
Christopher Mattei, a lawyer for the Sandy Hook families in the Connecticut lawsuit, said Friday´s ruling has no bearing on the ongoing lower court proceedings in Texas involving the liquidation of Infowars´ parent company.
Jones and his company have filed for bankruptcy, and those legal proceedings continue.
The satirical website The Onion also moved to take over Jones’ Infowars platforms and turn his bullhorn of conspiracy theories into parody sites.
Jones took Infowars off the air in April and moved to a new location, switching his shows to new websites and posting them on his personal X account.
The Onion, meanwhile, has set up its own Infowars webpage on its website, running videos of shows parodying Jones.
A proposed licensing deal that would give The Onion temporary authority to use Infowars´ trademarks, copyrights and intellectual property has been put on hold because the liquidation proceedings have been stayed during Jones´ appeals.
In November 2024, the Chicago-based satirical outlet was named the winner of a bankruptcy court auction of the assets of Infowars´ parent company, Free Speech Systems, aimed at helping pay some of the defamation judgments.
A federal judge overturned the auction results , citing problems with the process and The Onion´s bid.
