By Safia Samee Ali -
NBC News
A jury in Austin, Texas, decided Thursday that Infowars host Alex Jones must pay at least $4.1 million to the family of a 6-year-old boy who was killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting by the suffering he and his website caused them by spreading lies about the 2012 school massacre.
Scarlett Lewis and Neil Heslin, whose son Jesse died along with 19 of his classmates and six teachers at the Newtown, Connecticut, school, had sought $150 million in damages for defamation and intentional distress.
Jones during a pro-gun rally in Richmond, Virginia. Win McNamee / Getty Images
An attorney representing Jones, who repeatedly suggested the Sandy Hooks massacre was a lie, asked the jury to award just one dollar in compensation to Heslin and Lewis.
The jury was only asked to decide whether Jones - who the judge had already found in contempt of court for failing to provide evidence before the trial began - should compensate Jesse's parents for the anguish he had caused them and the damage he suffered. to their reputations by lying about their son's death.
The jury will also decide whether to award punitive damages.
On Friday there will be a testimony on that subject.
