By Alexia Walters
Susan Bro, mother to Heather Heyer, speaks during a memorial for her daughter at the Paramount Theater on Aug. 16, 2017 in Charlottesville, Va.
Charlottesville – A Kentucky native (click here) who drove his car into a crowd of counterprotesters at a white nationalist rally in Virginia has been convicted of first-degree murder.
In delivering its verdict late Friday afternoon, the jury rejected arguments by lawyers for James Alex Fields Jr. that he acted in self-defense.
Prosecutors said Fields drove his car directly into a crowd of counterprotesters at the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville on Aug. 12, 2017, because he was angry after witnessing earlier violent clashes between the two sides. The rally was held to protest the planned removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.
Fields’ lawyers told the jury he feared for his life after witnessing the violence.
The 21-year-old Fields of Maumee, Ohio, faces up to life in prison at sentencing....
June 27, 2018
By Katie Brenner and Hawes Spencer
...The charges stood in contrast to President Trump’s (click here) refusal to condemn white supremacists and neo-Nazis after the woman, Heather Heyer, was fatally struck. He declared that “many sides” shared blame as the violence touched off a firestorm over race relations in the United States.
“Last summer’s violence in Charlottesville cut short a promising young life and shocked the nation,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement on Wednesday. “Today’s indictment should send a clear message to every would-be criminal in America that we aggressively prosecute violent crimes of hate that threaten the core principles of our nation.”...
...Thomas Cullen, the United States attorney for western Virginia, called the 30-count indictment the culmination of a 10-month investigation that involved searching the social media accounts where Mr. Fields showed an interest in harming minorities.
“We have to get into somebody’s head, and that takes time,” Mr. Cullen told reporters in Charlottesville on Wednesday. Few people noticed Ms. Heyer’s mother and father slip into the back of the room as the news conference began.
Her mother, Susan Bro, declined to say what punishment Mr. Fields should receive and said she would “leave that to the process to decide.” Mr. Sessions has not determined whether to seek the death penalty.
