Judge refuses to grant bail to attack defendant
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — The man suspected of ramming his car into a crowd here, an attack that authorities said left one person dead and 19 more injured, was denied bail during his first court appearance in a downtown courtroom on Monday.
“You are charged with a number of felonies, including murder and malicious wounding,” Judge Robert Downer told the man, James Alex Fields Jr., who was not in the courtroom but was seen on a small video screen sitting with his shoulders slumped in front of a dark cinder block wall and a filing cabinet.
A statement by city officials said Fields, 20, was the driver of the Dodge Challenger that drove into a group of counterprotesters Saturday, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer, after a rally of white nationalists in a city park spun out of control, resulting in melees in the streets.
Downer said he would not grant bond to Fields, at least until he met with a court-appointed lawyer, Charles Weber. Fields answered Downer’s questions simply, saying, “Yes, sir” and “No, sir.” Fields told the judge he worked at Securitas, a national firm that employs more than 88,000 security officers.
Fields, who officials said was from Ohio, has expressed radical views in the past, according to acquaintances who recalled him yelling about Hitler or racial slurs. In other developments: Fields was previously accused of beating his mother and threatening her with a knife, according to police records released Monday. The records from the Florence Police Department in Kentucky show that his mother had called police in 2011. Fields’ mother, Samantha Bloom, told police he stood behind her wielding a 12-inch knife. Bloom is disabled and uses a wheelchair.
Charlottesville Police Chief Al Thomas, whose department has come under criticism for its response to the violence, said “alt-right” rally attendees had failed to follow an agreed-upon plan on entering Emancipation Park. The attendees were gathering to protest plans to remove a Confederate statue.
A spokeswoman for a hospital in Virginia says 10 patients treated there after a car ran into counterprotesters at a white nationalist rally have been released. Nine others are in good condition.
A message posted Saturday night on a leading neo-Nazi website called the Daily Stormer promised future events that would be “bigger than Charlottesville.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Jess Bidgood is a New York Times writer.