Alex Fields Jr. was the 21-year old man from Ohio who went to the neo-Nazi ‘Unite the Right’ rally in Charlottesville last year and was the driver of the car that drove through a crowd of protestors against the rally, killing 32-year old Heather Heyer and injuring numerous others. At his trial, he pleaded that he had feared for his life and was trying to escape and that there was no deliberate attempt to harm anyone. Today a jury took less than a day of deliberations to find him guilty of murder.
He faces 20 years to life in prison and will be sentenced at a later date.
The jury at Charlottesville City Circuit Court, which deliberated for less than a day, found him guilty on all the charges including murder; five counts of aggravated malicious wounding; three counts of malicious wounding and one count of hit and run.
Fields, from Ohio, also faces 30 other federal charges relating to hate crimes to which he has pleaded not guilty.
At his trial, he pleaded that he had feared for his life and was trying to escape and that there was no deliberate attempt to harm anyone.
Pleading cowardice is a coward’s act indeed.
I find “I drove a car into a crowd because I was trying to get away” to be absolutely inconceivable, and apparently so did the jury. I guess he was not one of the good guys on both sides of the incident.
Surely one of the protesters must now also be jailed to ensure Trump is still correct about good and bad on both sides.
/sarc