Alleged neo-Nazi goes on trial Monday

Fifteen months after an angry demonstration by white supremacists in Charlottesville, Va., erupted in deadly mayhem, a self-professed neo-Nazi is set to go on trial Monday, charged with killing a counterprotester and injuring 35 other people by intentionally ramming his car into another vehicle on a crowded street.

The alleged act of automotive rage by James Alex Fields Jr. on Aug. 12, 2017, helped make Charlottesville a shorthand term for the emergence of emboldened ethno-fascists in the era of President Donald Trump.

Fields, 21, charged with firstdegree murder and other crimes, is due to face a jury in Charlottesville Circuit Court as prosecutors revive memories of racist and anti-Semitic hate spewed on the streets of the small city that is home to Thomas Jefferson’s University of Virginia.

The counterprotester who was killed, Heather Heyer, 32, worked for a local law firm and was remembered by friends as an advocate of social justice.

With tight security and an expected heavy police presence outside the red-brick courthouse on High Street, jury selection is scheduled to begin Monday. Judge Richard Moore has set aside 14 weekdays, until Dec. 13, for the proceeding.

Besides first-degree murder, punishable by 20 years to life in state prison, Fields is charged with eight counts of aggravated malicious wounding. Separately, Fields has been charged by the Justice Department with an array of federal hate crimes related to the incident.