A lawyer for families of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook mass shooting told a Connecticut jury on Tuesday that conspiracy theorist Alex Jones will never stop profiting off destructive falsehoods unless he pays for the lies he told about the massacre, Reuters reported. The lawyer, Christopher Mattei, made his assessment during opening statements at a trial being held in a state court about 20 miles from where 20 children and six staff members were killed on Dec. 14, 2012, at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Jurors will decide how much in damages Jones owes 13 family members of victims as well as one FBI agent for claiming the massacre was a hoax. Jones' trial in Waterbury, Conn., comes one month after a jury in Austin, Texas, awarded two parents $49.3 million in a similar case. Infowars is based in Texas. Mattei told jurors it was important to stop Jones and his right-wing Infowars brand from "preying on people who are helpless" and encouraging years of harassment from Jones' followers. He said Infowars drew millions of followers with bogus claims about Sandy Hook, and made as much as $800,000 a day selling supplements, doomsday supplies and other products.
