after years of calling the shooting a hoax, he testified under oath at a defamation hearing last week, he finally admitted the truth. do you understand now that it was absolutely irresponsible of you? it was, especially since i met the parents. it s 100 percent real. a jury ordered alex jones to pay more than 45 million in punitive damages to the family of a sandy hook shooting victim. earlier, the same jury order jones to pay the same family another 4. 1 million and compensatory damages for the suffering joneses caused. elizabeth williamson is a reporter for the new york times and author of sandy hook, an american tragedy and the battle for truth. she joins me now to discuss all this. elizabeth, let s talk about the outcome of the trial.
in his classroom with 19 other fist graders who were massacred in school two weeks before christmas day in 2012. it might have been more if jessie hadn t shouted run to warn the other kids when the killers gotten jammed. his father told the court about holding his debt child with a bullet hole in his head. his parents told jurors how the cause of alex jones s lies, people have shot at their house and threatened to kill them. in addition to the other harassment they endured while grieving for their dead child. today s judgment was unanimous. and after the verdict, jessie s mother addressed the other sandy hook families saying, i hope i did well for you. joining us now to discuss, elizabeth williamson from the all new york times, she s the author of sandy hook, an american tragedy in the battle for truth. elizabeth, you followed this nightmare inflicted on these
never really been about the money for heslin and scarlett lewis. what this is about, in particular, for neil heslin, this is about getting alex jones to shut up about his did son. getting alex schoen s to never again say his son, who was shot and killed at sandy hook elementary school, wasn t shot and killed. and wasn t even a real person. this is about taking that stress, that emotional stress, off his back and making sure that alex jones and all his followers realized that the sandy hook s massacre was not a hoax, was not a false flag, it was in fact a horrific parable how horrible event. i watch parents beacon that courtroom. and it s just beyond imagination what they have been through. drew, do stay with us, because i want to bring in cnn legal analyst paul callan. also new york times elizabeth williamson, who s in the courtroom today, and she s the author of sandy hook, an american tragedy, and the
is about taking that stress, that emotional stress off his back and making sure that alex jones and all his followers realized that the sandy hook massacre was not a hoax, was not a false flag, it was a horrific terrible event. i ve watched the parents speak in that courtroom, and it is beyond imagination what they have been through. drew, do stay with us, i want to bring in cnn legal analyst paul callan and the new york times elizabeth williams, who s in the courtroom today. she is the author of, sandy hook, an american tragedy and the battle for truth. paul, first legal answers to this. ten out of 12 jurors came to this decision. it was not unanimous, interestingly. what do you think of the verdict and dollar figure, given it was so far below what the parents had sought? i thought the verdict was a little bit on the
this is your perry mason moment. perry mason moment. he was caught in yet another lie. there was no explanation for that. and it was certainly was mind-blowing. they don t know exactly what the tests are yet, anderson, but it was an eye-opener. drew, i want to bring in elizabeth williamson of the new york times, in the courtroom phase she is a book author of a book i ve read, that s wonderful, i ve read it, sandy hook: an american tragedy in the battle for truth. can you talk about what it was like in the courtroom today? well, i think probably the most notable thing, and this has been sort of true since the beginning of the trial, that has been going on for nearly two weeks, is how uncomfortable jones was. as the judge pointed out, this is not his show, he makes assertions that are not backed up by facts. and he tends to opinion eight an answer to every question. so the judge, repeatedly silenced him and he was sweating, like sweat running into his eyes, going into