Texas Appeals Court Cuts Alex Jones’ Sandy Hook Judgment by More Than $43 Million
Alex Jones won a major legal victory Friday when a Texas appeals court slashed the punitive damages in one of the Sandy Hook defamation cases.
The Texas Third Court of Appeals ruled unanimously that the trial court abused its discretion by allowing Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis to exceed Texas’ statutory cap on punitive, or exemplary, damages.
The appeals court ordered the punitive award reduced from roughly $45.2 million to $1.5 million. Each parent will receive $750,000 under the ruling, according to Reuters.
Jones still faces about $4.1 million in compensatory damages awarded by the jury. Interest and fees could bring the remaining Texas judgment to approximately $5.5 million to $6 million. More than $43 million was erased from the original award.
The case stems from a 2022 trial in which a jury found Jones liable and awarded the parents more than $50 million. Texas law generally limits non-economic punitive damages to $750,000 per plaintiff.
The trial judge allowed the parents’ attorneys to amend their claims after the liability verdict but before the final damages decision. Their argument was that the trauma suffered by the parents qualified as a “disability,” allowing them to bypass the statutory limit.
The appeals court rejected that approach. The judges said the trial court improperly allowed a post-verdict amendment based on grounds that had not been pleaded or decided by the jury.
Jones celebrated the decision on his show Friday, calling it a “gigantic victory for the First Amendment.” He also said he would continue fighting and take the remaining damages dispute to the Texas Supreme Court.
“I got lawyers who are good constitutional lawyers and they are not backing down,” Jones said.
Jones has long argued that the lawsuits were lawfare intended to bankrupt him and silence an influential independent media voice. The reduced Texas award does not affect a separate Connecticut judgment of roughly $1.4 billion. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Jones’ appeal in that case last year.
Jones and Free Speech Systems remain in bankruptcy proceedings, while efforts to liquidate Infowars assets continue. In May, The Gateway Pundit reported that Jones was forced to close Infowars’ Austin studio after 27 years amid a court-ordered receivership and an attempted takeover by The Onion’s parent company.
Jones has repeatedly described the litigation as an attack on independent media and his First Amendment rights.