Jury imposed punitive damages against NKY native who killed one at 'Unite the Right' rally

On Tuesday, the jury in the civil trial over the deadly 2017 white supremacist Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville imposed punitive damages against the Boone County native who drove a car into a crowd of protestors. 

James Alex Fields was previously convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison in the death of Heather Heyer, a 32-year-old paralegal. 

In 2019, he pleaded guilty to 29 federal hate crimes for killing Heyer and injuring 28 others when he drove his car into the crowd of counter-protesters.

According to USA TODAY, soon after the violent rally, nine Charlottesville residents who said they had been physically or mentally injured by the events of that week pursued a civil case against white supremacist leaders of the rally. 

Lawyers for the plaintiffs produced evidence designed to show that the defendants conspired in planning the rally, knew it would descend into violence and celebrated when it did.

After days of deliberations, the jury awarded more than $25 million to the plaintiffs in combined damages, including $12 million in punitive damages against Fields. 

Fields moved from Florence with his mother to Maumee, Ohio prior to the Unite the Right rally. The Dodge Challenger he drove through the crowd of counter-protesters was purchased from a Cincinnati-area car dealership in June of 2015.

Fields attended Randall K. Cooper High School where a teacher of his described his political beliefs as "very much along the party lines of the neo-Nazi movement." 

Bob Strickley contributed.