Jury calls for life for man who crashed into protesters

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — A jury Tuesday called for a sentence of life in prison plus 419 years for the Hitler admirer who killed a woman when he rammed his car into counterprotesters at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville two summers ago.

The decision capped a trial laced with survivors’ anguished testimony and details of the driver’s long history of mental illness.

James Alex Fields Jr., 21, stood stoically with his hands folded in front of him as he heard the jury’s recommendation.

It will be up to Judge Richard Moore to decide on the punishment at Fields’ sentencing, set for March 29. Judges in Virginia often go along with the jury’s recommendation. Under state law, they can impose a shorter sentence but not a longer one.

The jury called for a life sentence for first-degree murder in the killing of Heather Heyer, a 32-year-old paralegal and activist, and also asked for hundreds more years on nine counts involving injuries caused to others.

Fields drove to Virginia from his home in Maumee, Ohio, to support the white nationalists at the “Unite the Right” rally on Aug. 12, 2017. After police forced the crowds to disband, Fields spotted a large group of protesters marching and singing. He stopped his car, backed up, then sped forward into the crowd, according to testimony from witnesses and video surveillance shown to jurors.