US neo-Nazi filled with ‘anger,’ prosecutor says
CHARLOTTESVILLE, United States: An American Nazi sympathizer was driven by ‘anger’ when he plowed his car into a group of counter-protesters at a white supremacist rally last year in Charlottesville, prosecutors argued Thursday, as survivors recounted harrowing stories of ‘bodies flying everywhere’.
Months before ramming his Dodge Challenger into a crowd of activists in the Virginia city, James Alex Fields Jr posted disturbing pictures online that showed similar acts, prosecuting lawyers said as his trial got underway.
The 21-year- old from Ohio is accused of first degree murder over the killing of Heather Heyer, 32, as well as hit- andrun charges and eight counts of causing serious injury.
Hundreds had descended on Charlottesville on the day of Heyer’s death, August 12, 2017, either to march in or rail against a ‘Unite the Right’ rally.
Unrest quickly flared as riot police and National Guard troops flooded the city’s downtown to contain clashes between white far-right supporters and counterprotestors that led to a state of emergency being called.
The violence capped two days of confrontation over the removal of a Confederate statue that shook the country, and became a symbol of the growing audacity of the far right under President Donald Trump.
Prosecutor Nina Antony told the jury that a mountain of photographic and video evidence would show Fields’ actions were pre-meditated and not motivated by a desire to protect himself, as the defense would argue.
These included two images, she revealed for the first time, that were posted by Fields to Instagram in May 2017.
“And in both those images you’ll see a group being struck, described as protesters,” she said.
“On August 12, James Alex Fields Jr was here in Charlottesville with anger and images of violence fixed in his mind. The case is about his decision to act on that anger and those images.”
Heyer’s mother Susan Bro was present in the front row of the court, where opening arguments and testimony were heard after three full days of jury selection involving hundreds of prospective jurors.
A few feet away, Fields watched the proceedings attentively, wearing glasses, a blue sweater and a blue shirt.
The court heard from witnesses including Marcus Martin, the subject of a Pulitzer- prize winning photograph that became synonymous with the incident, in which he is seen launched into the air after being struck by the car.
Earlier, both the prosecution and defense had said that while there was no dispute over who was behind the wheel that day, Fields’ intentions and state of mind were the key issues.
“This is not a whodunit case. This is not where we need to figure (out) who was in that car,” said defense attorney John Hill. — AFP