Infowars star at Alex Jones trial admits he failed to verify story that defamed Sandy Hook dad

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AUSTIN, Texas — The defense of Alex Jones at a defamation awards trial where parents are seeking $150 million in damages featured an Infowars video of Jones saying he believed children died in the Sandy Hook massacre but questioned media accounts of the crime.

“Did you hear Alex Jones say on the video, ‘I believe children died at Sandy Hook’?” asked attorney Andino Reynal during Day 3 of evidence in a livestreamed trial that has been covered nationwide since it began with jury selection on Monday.

Reynal was questioning an Infowars producer on the witness stand named Daria Karpova, who began a third day of testimony Thursday after being grilled earlier in the week by attorneys for the parents of a slain Sandy Hook first-grader.

“He did say that,” Karpova said.

“As a corporate representative for Infowars, what is the company’s position as to what it was trying to do with its coverage of Sandy Hook?” Reynal asked.

“Alex believed there were children that were murdered at the school but questioned heavily the events of that day and government involvement,” Karpova said.

Later on Thursday, a rising star at Infowars admitted under questioning that he did nothing to fact-check a story he broadcast in 2018 that defamed the father of a slain boy.

“I could have done a better job,” said Owen Shroyer, the host of Infowars’ “The War Room.”

“You could have done a job,” said the parents’ attorney, Kyle Farrar. “You could have done something, but you didn’t do anything, did you?”

Shroyer explained to the jury of 12 as parents Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis looked on with reservation on their faces that he was live on the air and didn’t have time. Their college-age son, J.T. Lewis, was at the courthouse the morning, but did not stay in the courtroom for testimony, including Shroyer’s.

“Is that an excuse to defame Mr. Helsin — that you didn’t have time?” the attorney Farrar asked.

The start of testimony Thursday followed acrimony Wednesday when Reynal lost his temper during a dispute about a video he wanted to play that wasn’t on the evidence list, and he flipped his middle finger at the parents’ lead attorney Mark Bankston, calling him a “liar.”

Reynal — the lawyer Jones trusts most to defend him in this and two other upcoming Sandy Hook defamation awards cases in Texas and Connecticut — had already called the defense team “dishonest” and referred to them derisively as personal injury lawyers when he lost his temper.

Although the heated exchange happened after the jury had been dismissed for the day, Judge Maya Guerra Gamble warned that it better not happen again. On Tuesday during opening statements, Gamble had to issue a warning that she didn’t want any discussion of the case where jurors might hear it after Jones left the court room during a break and gave an impromptu press conference just outside the doors.

Reynal got on the right side of the judge Thursday by apologizing. Gamble settled the dispute about the video in question by denying it.

Reynal responded by playing a 50-minute video already on the evidence list of a Jones broadcast from Dec. 14, 2012 — when a 20-year-old gunman shot his way into a locked Sandy Hook Elementary School and killed 20 first-graders and six educators. That video, which Reynal said was meant to show that Jones’ Infowars “makes an effort for all voices to be heard,” was followed by a 17-minute video where Jones said he believed children were killed at Sandy Hook.

Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, the parents of slain first-grader Jesse Lewis, appeared composed in the courtroom during the video.

Heslin and Lewis sued Jones after he called the worst crime in modern Connecticut history “staged,” “synthetic,” “manufactured,” “a giant hoax,” and “completely fake with actors.”

The time devoted Thursday to showing long Infowars footage was meant to counteract evidence offered by the parents’ attorneys that Jones allowed extremists a platform with millions of viewers to defame and harass victims.

“Does Infowars try to have a forum where they discuss views openly?” Reynal asked Karpova.

Stay tuned all week for updates.