Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has indicated he no longer wants to take the stand for a second time at his Sandy Hook defamation trial.
After the jury was dismissed on Tuesday afternoon, Mr Jones’ lawyer Norm Pettis indicated that his client would not testify as planned on Wednesday, according to attorney and journalist Morgan Stringer, who is covering the case from the courtroom.
Mr Jones is facing a second defamation trial for spreading baseless lies about the 2012 school massacre at Sandy Hook.
Earlier on Tuesday, Mr Jones ranted to reporters outside the court in Connecticut that he was “strongly considering” invoking the 5th Amendment as he baselessly claimed that the judge wants to throw him in jail for telling the truth.
“Not because I’m guilty, but because she [the judge] says if I tell the truth, she’ll put me in the Waterbury jail for six months. That’s what she can do,” he blustered.
“I tell the judge and all the rest of the New World Order: I am innocent, and you are guilty of tyranny.”
Continuing his rant outside court, Mr Jones hit out at “the establishment” for “hyping up mass shootings” and pharmaceutical companies for prescribing antidepressants.
He blamed the media for putting on a “production” with Sandy Hook coverage and insisted: “I never harassed these families, I never sent anyone to harass them. They have no evidence of that. I didn’t kill their kids.”
Robbie Parker, whose daughter six-year-old daughter Emilie was among the Sandy Hook victims, is among eight families and an FBI agent who won a default judgment against the Infowars founder.
A jury is weighing how much he should pay the victims for spreading the lie that the mass shooting that claimed the lives of 20 students and six adults was a hoax.
In his first appearance on the stand on 23 September, Mr Jones shouted that he was “done apologising” for spreading lies that the Sandy Hook massacre was a hoax.
“I’ve already said I’m sorry hundreds of times. And I’m done saying sorry,” he shouted across the courtroom as victim’s families watched on in disbelief.
The dramatic scene unfolded as Christopher Mattei, an attorney for the victims’ families, confronted Mr Jones with the people who he accused of being “crisis actors” almost as soon as their children and loved ones were murdered in one of the worst school shootings in US history.
In August, a jury ordered Mr Jones to pay nearly $50m in punitive and compensatory damages to Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, whose six-year-old son Jesse was killed in the shooting.
