- An InfoWars producer testified that Alex Jones' is "always stressed" over the backlash from his Sandy Hook falsehoods.
- "I think his mood, his health, his general demeanor, is always stressed out," the producer testified at Jones' defamation damages trial.
- A jury will determine how much money Jones must pay Sandy Hook parents for falsely calling the 2012 school massacre a "hoax."
An InfoWars producer said during Alex Jones' defamation damages trial on Thursday that the far-right conspiracy broadcaster's well-being and health has suffered as a result of the backlash from his falsehoods about the Sandy Hook massacre.
The testimony by Daria Karpova — apparently meant to elicit juror sympathy for Jones — prompted an accusation of "hypocrisy" from an attorney representing the plaintiffs in the case, the mother and father of one of the 20 grade-schoolers slain in the 2012 Newtown, Connecticut, mass shooting.
"This whole Sandy Hook thing has weighed heavily on him because people don't know the shooter's name, but they think Alex Jones murdered those children," Karpova testified in the Texas court, adding, "People hearing the words Sandy Hook, they automatically think Alex Jones."
"I think his mood, his health, his general demeanor, is always stressed out … He can't relax," since InfoWars was "deplatformed" by YouTube and other social media platforms, Karpova said of Jones.
In the aftermath of the mass shooting and the years to follow, Jones — the founder of InfoWars — repeatedly told his audience that the massacre was a "giant hoax" staged by the government with "crisis actors."
Jones has already been found liable for defamation by the Texas court and a court in Connecticut for his portrayal of the massacre — the deadliest school shooting in American history.
Outrage was evident in his voice as Mark Bankston, lawyer for parents Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, asked Karpova whether she understands the "irony and hypocrisy" of making a statement like she did about Jones.
"Do you understand how that can be viewed very hypocritically in this courtroom right now because of why my clients are here?" Bankston asked Karpova, who answered defensively, "It's just the truth, what am I supposed to say?"
At another point, Karpova told jurors that Jones "did consider the possibility that there were no children killed" in the mass shooting.
Asked if he's proud of what he said, she said, "No, he's not ... It weighs heavily on his heart still."
The jury in the trial will determine how much money Jones must pay to Heslin and Lewis, whose son Jesse Lewis was one of the 26 killed in the shooting.
Bankston said in his opening statements this week that the jury should force Jones to pay his clients $150 million in damages for leading a decadelong "massive campaign of lies" about the mass shooting.
Jones' "disgusting series of lies" about the rampage caused the harassment and torment of Heslin and Lewis, Bankston said.
