The mother of one of the 20 kids killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting said that the lies “InfoWars” host Alex Jones told about the mass slaughter even spread to her victims’ support group.
Francine Wheeler, who lost her son 6-year-old son Ben in the school shooting, said in a Connecticut court Tuesday that a parent of another gun violence victim told her in a group meeting that her son’s killing wasn’t real.
Wheeler said during testimony in the third week of Jones’ defamation hearing that when she tried sharing her experience with a mom who lost her son in a robbery, the woman told her the Sandy Hook slaughter never happened.
Jones has already been deemed responsible for promoting that lie on his conspiracy pushing right-wing program. Jurors in Waterbury, Conn., will soon determine what he owes the families who were tormented by his followers in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook tragedy. The 48-year-old broadcaster had suggested the mass shooting was a ruse coordinated by gun-control advocates.
According to Wheeler, conspiracy kooks further impeded her ability to grieve when they found musical performances she posted online and used them to make the argument she’s an entertainer who was part of the stunt Jones and his followers claimed to have uncovered.
“They took that from me,” Wheeler testified. “They took my identity, they took my husband’s identity, they took my surviving son’s identity.”
Ben Wheeler’s obituary said the boy’s older brother, Nate, was his hero. The victim was described as a Beatles fan who favored the 7 train that runs between Manhattan and Queens.
According to court notes posted by the Independent, Wheeler called it “ironic” that a lifetime of identifying with the arts would be used against her in Jones’ and his cohorts’ theater of the absurd.
“I loved my life in New York and even in Newtown,” she said.
Jurors also heard from Jackie Barden Thursday, who lost her son Daniel Barden in the Newton, Conn. killing. He would have celebrated his 17th birthday last week. Barden claimed one Sandy Hook denier threatened in a letter to dig up her son’s grave to prove he hadn’t been killed. Another tormenter allegedly wrote Daniel’s family saying they’d urinated on the boy’s grave.
Numerous witnesses who lost family members in the Sandy Hook shooting committed by a troubled 20-year-old gunman, who also killed his mother and himself, told the court in recent weeks that batty right-wing provocateurs have harassed them publicly in the decade since their loved ones were shot dead in their classrooms. Six educators were also gunned down in the massacre.
Jones testified in his defense on Sept. 22, where he heatedly told the plaintiff’s attorney, and jurors, that he’s “done” apologizing for the lies he spread about Sandy Hook and believed what he was saying at the time. His attorneys opted not to let things cool down rather than cross-examining Jones right away. He is expected to return to the courtroom this week for more questioning.
Last month, a jury in Texas awarded nearly $50 million in damages to Sandy Hook parents who sued Jones in his home state. Litigants in Connecticut are expected to push for a staggering settlement. Jones’ attorneys asked in the Texas case that jurors consider the financial impact allegedly done by the broadcaster’s reporting and rule accordingly.
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