Alex Jones concedes Sandy Hook attack was '100% real'

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones testified Wednesday that he now understands it was irresponsible of him to declare the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre a hoax and that he now believes it was “100% real."

Speaking a day after the parents of a 6-yearold boy who was killed in the 2012 attack testified about the suffering, death threats and harassment they've endured because of what Jones has trumpeted on his media platforms, the Infowars host told a Texas courtroom that he definitely thinks the attack happened.

“Especially since I've met the parents. It's 100% real,” Jones said at his trial to determine how much he and his media company, Free Speech Systems, owe for defaming Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis. Their son Jesse Lewis was among the 20 students and six educators who were killed in the attack in Newtown, Connecticut, which was the deadliest school shooting in American history.

But Heslin and Lewis said Tuesday that an apology wouldn't suffice and that Jones needed to be held accountable for repeatedly spreading falsehoods about the attack. They are seeking at least $150 million.

Jones told the jury that any compensation above $2 million “will sink us,” but added: “Ï think it's appropriate for whatever you decide what you want to do.”

Testimony concluded around midday and closing arguments were expected to begin Wednesday afternoon.

Jones was the only person who testified in his own defense. His attorney asked him if he now understands it was “absolutely irresponsible” to push the false claims that the massacre didn't happen and no one died.

Jones said he does, but added, “They (the media) won't let me take it back.”

He also complained that he's been “typecast as someone that runs around talking about Sandy Hook, makes money off Sandy Hook, is obsessed by Sandy Hook.”

Under a withering cross-examination from attorney Mark Bankston, Jones acknowledged his history of raising conspiracy claims regarding other mass tragedies, from the Oklahoma City andboston Marathon bombings to the mass shootings in Las Vegas and Parkland, Florida.

Bankston then went after Jones' credibility, showing an Infowars video clip from last week when a host — not Jones — claimed the trial was rigged and featuring a photo of the judge in flames. Then came another clip of Jones asking if the jury was selected from a group of people “who don't know what planet” they live on. Jones said he didn't mean that part literally.

Bankston said Jones hadn't complied with court orders to provide text message and emails for pretrial evidence gathering. Jones said, “I don't use email,” then was showed one gathered from another source that came from his email address. He replied: “I must have dictated that.”

At one point, Bankston informed Jones that his attorneys had mistakenly sent Bankston the last two years' worth of texts from Jones' cellphone.

The attorney also showed the court an email from an Infowars business officer informing Jones that the company had earned $800,000 gross in selling its products in a single day, which would amount to nearly $300 million in a year. Jones said that was the company's best day in sales.

Jones' testimony came a day after Heslin and Lewis told the courtroom in Austin, where Jones and his companies are based, that Jones and the false hoax claims he and Infowars pushed made their lives a “living hell” of death threats, online abuse and harassment.

They led a day of charged testimony Tuesday that included the judge scolding the bombastic Jones for not being truthful with some of what he said under oath.

In a gripping exchange, Lewis spoke directly to Jones, who was sitting about 10 feet away. Earlier that day, Jones was on his broadcast program telling his audience that Heslin is “slow” and being manipulated by bad people.

At one point, Lewis asked Jones: “Do you think I'm an actor?”

“No, I don't think you're an actor,” Jones responded before the judge admonished him to be quiet until called to testify.

Heslin told the jury about holding his son with a bullet hole through his head, even describing the extent of the damage to his son's body. A key segment of the case is a 2017 Infowars broadcast that said Heslin didn't hold his son.