Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones ordered to pay $4.1m over false Sandy Hook claims

In a separate phase Friday, jurors are to determine whether Jones owes any so-called punitive damages in addition to the compensation he was ordered to cough up Thursday.

Heslin and Scarlett Lewis took the witness stand during the trial that started with jury selection on 25 July and detailed the mental suffering, death threats and harassment they weathered from fringe conservatives after Jones went on the rightwing conspiratorial outlet Infowars and his other media platforms to trumpet lies that the 20 children and six adults murdered in the 2012 Connecticut school massacre never actually died.

Nonetheless, in an exchange with Reynal while on the witness stand, Jones acknowledged his positions on the Sandy Hook killings were reckless lies.

Jones did, he said, but he maintained that he never tried to hide anything on his phone, which explained how his attorneys had anything to send over inadvertently in the first place.

Bankston on Thursday said the congressional committee investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol had requested that he provide the panel with the texts from Jones, a prominent supporter of former president Donald Trump.

Bankston said he intended to comply with the request unless a judge ordered he do otherwise.

A similar trial to the one in Austin looms for Jones in Connecticut. Other Sandy Hook parents are pursuing that case, which they won by default last year after Jones refused to produce any documents they demanded.