Charlottesville

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Virginia declares state of emergency ahead of Charlottesville anniversary | CNN



Quote:

The group behind last year’s "Unite the Right" rally are organizing a second event on the one-year anniversary of the rally, which left one counter-protester dead.

Charlottesville car attack suspect James Alex Fields Jr. to stand trial Monday | WCPO Cincinnati

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An Ohio man whose high school history teacher described him as "infatuated with the Nazis" will on Monday morning face a jury and a murder charge in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Police and prosecutors believe 21-year-old James Alex Fields Jr., a resident of Maumee, Ohio, is the man recorded driving his 2010 Dodge Challenger into a crowd of peaceful counter-protesters at an Aug. 12 rally of white nationalists and Neo-Nazis.

Heather Heyer, a 32-year-old anti-racist activist who had been moved to attend the night before, died after the car struck her. Dozens more were wounded.

Recordings of the impact and the car speeding away in reverse captured the most shocking moment of an event that had already included crowds of armed, torch-bearing Neo-Nazis chanting racist, anti-Semitic slogans such as "Jews will not replace us!"

Fields was photographed alongside some of those Neo-Nazis -- members of neo-fascist group Vanguard America -- earlier in the day.

<snipped>

Although the organization would later deny he was a member, Randall K. Cooper High School history teacher Derek Weimer said Fields' interest in extremism and white racial purity was long-standing.

"I developed a good rapport with him and used that rapport to constantly try to steer him away from those beliefs to show clear examples -- why that thinking is wrong, why their beliefs were evil, you know, things like that," Weimer said days after the rally. "I thought at times I got through to him, but obviously not."

In addition to first-degree murder, Fields stands charged with eight counts of aggravated malicious wounding in connection to the attack. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

If convicted in Charlottesville Circuit Court, he could spend the rest of his life in prison.

More at https://www.wcpo.com/news/state/sta...ct-james-alex-fields-jr-to-stand-trial-monday

The man charged with plowing his car into a crowd and killing a woman at the Charlottesville rally will argue he was acting out of self-defense

By Denise Lavoie, Associated Press

https://www.businessinsider.com/ap-...tionalist-rally-to-argue-self-defense-2018-11

Judge in Fields trial tells potential jurors to ignore robocalls that police said contain 'hateful comments' | Richmond.com

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In court Wednesday afternoon, Judge Richard E. Moore said four more jurors are needed before the trial can move forward, which is now expected to begin Thursday morning.

Moore also noted that there have been reports of "robocalls" to local residents and businesses. He instructed all of the potential jurors to ignore the messages.

Sgt. Tony Newberry, of the Charlottesville Police Department, said there have been reports of phone calls with "hateful comments" blaming current and former city officials for the deadly incident which Fields is on trial for.

Continued at https://www.richmond.com/news/virgi...cle_24e4a08e-3eba-5723-b6f0-591813a8fa94.html

Fields trial set to begin Thursday | WDBJ7

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After three days and nights, 28 jurors have been qualified to hear the murder trial of James Alex Fields Jr.

The 28 will appear in court Thursday morning, where the prosecution and defense teams will each strike six people from the panel. The remaining 16 jurors will be seated as the jury for the Fields trial.

<snipped>

The trial is expected to last three weeks, and the jury could hear from more than 50 witnesses. The witnesses could include police officers, mental health experts, citizens and Fields' mother.

More at https://www.wdbj7.com/content/news/...Fields-trial-to-begin-Thursday-501486121.html

Judge allows prosecutors to submit Fields' social media messages as evidence during trial

https://www.wdbj7.com/content/news/...ng-into-a-crowd-of-protesters--501649871.html

Key trial issue: Why did driver plow into counterprotesters?

https://www.wdbj7.com/content/news/501653471.html

Neo-Nazi James Alex Fields Jr. Found Guilty of Murdering Heather Heyer, Faces Life in Prison | Mediaite

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After ramming his car into a large group of protesters at the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia a year ago, Neo-Nazi James Alex Fields Jr. was found guilty of first-degree murder and five counts of aggravated malicious wounding today.

Fields, who killed anti-racist activist Heather Heyer with his car, now faces 20 years to life in prison, as he awaits trial for 30 federal hate crime charges and other alleged crimes.

Continued at https://www.mediaite.com/online/neo...murdering-heather-heyer-faces-life-in-prison/

A White Supremacist Has Been Found Guilty Of Murder For Killing A Unite The Right Counterprotester | BuzzFeed News

Excerpt:

James Alex Fields Jr. was also found guilty of five counts of malicious wounding, three counts of aggravated malicious wounding, and one count of failing to stop at the scene of an accident involving a death in the attack that injured dozens of others.

Fields remained subdued and quiet as the verdicts were read aloud inside the Charlottesville courtroom. His sentencing hearing is scheduled to start Monday morning.

More at https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/blakemontgomery/white-supremacist-guilty-murder-charlottesville

James Fields convicted in Charlottesville death | CNN

https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/07/us/charlottesville-james-fields-trial/

Jury convicts James Fields of first-degree murder in death of Heather Heyer in Charlottesville | The Associated Press

https://www.richmond.com/news/virgi...cle_3145c22c-77f3-5917-b8c2-c23e4395247c.html

James Alex Fields, Nazi who drove car into Charlottesville protesters, found guilty of murdering Heather Heyer | Boing Boing

"Never forget: Trump said they were 'very fine people.'"

https://boingboing.net/2018/12/07/man-who-drove-car-into-charlot.html

‘Very Fine People’: Trump Blasted With Charlottesville Murder Verdict | News One

https://newsone.com/playlist/very-fine-people-twitter-reacts-james-fields-verdict/

Jury recommends life in prison for James Alex Fields for murder of Heather Heyer

Quote:

A jury recommended life in prison Tuesday for James Alex Fields for murdering Heather Heyer when he drove his car into a crowd of counter-protesters the day of a 2017 white nationalist rally tied to Confederate statues.

Fields, 21, was convicted of first-degree murder and nine other charges on Friday, including the wounding of others in the crash and fleeing the scene. Jurors had the option of 20 years to life on the first degree murder charge, plus additional time on the other counts.

The jury also recommended a sentence of 70 years each on five counts of aggravated malicious wounding, 20 years each on three counts of malicious wounding and 9 years for hit and run, as well as a $100,000 fine.

The judge will formally impose a sentence March 29. Virginia judges typically follow a jury’s recommendation and cannot increase the penalty beyond it.

Continued at https://wtop.com/virginia/2018/12/j...x-fields-for-murder-of-heather-heyer/slide/1/

Charlottesville mystery: Who are the last two attackers of DeAndre Harris, the black man beaten in parking garage? | The Washington Post



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One man was sporting a red, bushy beard. The second man, blond-haired, was wearing sunglasses and a tucked-in white, long sleeve shirt. In footage seen hundreds of thousands of times, they are the two assailants who face the camera and are the most visible in the frame. The video shows the duo joining four others to pummel a black man in a parking garage here, repeatedly kicking, punching and hitting him with wooden flagpoles or a plank.

In the 18 months since the vicious attack on DeAndre Harris during the Unite the Right rally, four of the assailants — all linked to white nationalist, pro-Confederacy or anti-government ideologies — have been caught and convicted. But the men known as “Red Beard” and “Sunglasses” have essentially vanished.

Continued at https://www.washingtonpost.com/loca...27629c-3550-11e9-af5b-b51b7ff322e9_story.html

There's a related post here:

https://whyweprotest.net/threads/th...table-billionaire.79073/page-228#post-2777784

The Charlottesville Neo-Nazi Who Killed Heather Heyer Just Got Life in Prison

By Tess Owen, VICE News, June 28, 2019

Quote:

The young neo-Nazi who murdered Heather Heyer has been sentenced to life in prison for federal hate crime charges. He also wounded 35 others when he drove into a crowd of protesters during the violent “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, two years ago.

James Alex Fields Jr., now 22, apologized to the judge before receiving his sentence Friday. Earlier this year, he pleaded guilty to 29 federal hate crime charges to avoid the death penalty. He was also convicted in December on state charges, including first-degree murder, and a jury recommended he spend life plus 419 years in state prison.

Heyer’s mother, Susan Bro, was in the Charlottesville courtroom and talked about the pain of losing her daughter. She also said that she hopes Fields can “heal someday and help others heal.”

Prosecutors had an uphill battle proving Fields guilty of hate crimes, especially at the federal level. But they presented several pieces of evidence to demonstrate Fields’ extremist views and argued that his actions that day were intentional rather than impulsive.

For example, in the five months leading up to the attack, Fields tweeted or sent via direct message 30 images of Hitler and six images depicting the nerve gas that Nazis used to commit mass genocide. Prosecutors noted that he had a Nazi-era German battle flag hanging on his bedroom wall and a framed photograph of Adolf Hitler on his bedside table.

Prosecutors also included snippets of testimony from former classmates. One classmate recalled a field trip to the Dachau concentration camp in Germany. “I overheard [James Fields] say, “This is where the magic happened,” the classmate said. “He was happy in one of the saddest places I have ever been.”

As more evidence of Fields’ intent, prosecutors filed a memo last week to remind the judge that Fields had posted two memes in the months leading up to the August 14, 2017, rally showing cars running over protesters.

But lawyers representing Fields, who's from Maumee, Ohio, had asked Judge Michael Urbanski to spare him from a life sentence, due to his young age, traumatic childhood, and history of mental illness.

Prosecutors deflected that argument by playing tapes of calls Fields made from jail, in which he told his mother that he was trying to persuade the doctor that he was mentally ill. “I kinda like skewed it a bit,” he said on one recording.

The Justice Department, with former Attorney General Jeff Sessions at the helm, filed federal hate crime charges against Fields almost a year ago to the day. Sessions framed the decision to pursue hate crime charges against Fields as a symbolic act of condemnation of the Charlottesville rally.

“At the Department of Justice, we remain resolute that hateful ideologies will not have the last word and that their adherents will not get away with violent crimes against those they target,” Sessions said.” Today’s indictment should send a clear message to every would-be criminal in America that we aggressively prosecute violent crimes of hate that threaten the core principles of our nation.”

The indictment noted that Heyer, who was 32, was standing among a “racially and ethnically diverse crowd” when Fields accelerated his vehicle into the group, sending bodies flying, before he reversed up the hill and sped away. “Many of the individuals in the crowd were chanting and carrying signs promoting equality and protesting against racial and other forms of discrimination,” the indictment stated.

Source: https://news.vice.com/en_us/article...-killed-heather-heyer-just-got-life-in-prison

This is still racist