‘It’s a relief:’ Fields pleads guilty to federal charges

Some victims of the August 12, 2017, car attack are breathing a sigh of relief that they won’t have to endure a second trial, after the white supremacist who murdered Heather Heyer pleaded guilty to 29 federal hate crimes on March 27. In a state trial in December, James Alex Fields, Jr., a 21-year-old from […]

Day 12: Fields gets life plus 419 years

After finding him guilty of first-degree murder and nine other charges on Friday, a jury today recommended that James Alex Fields Jr. spend the rest of his life in prison for the carnage he caused here when he drove into a crowd August 12, 2017, killing Heather Heyer and injuring dozens more. On top of […]

Day 9: Closing arguments in Fields’ trial

It’s in the jury’s hands now. The prosecution and defense have given their closing arguments on the ninth day of James Alex Fields Jr.’s first-degree murder trial. The man charged with killing Heather Heyer and injuring many others when he rammed his car into a crowd at an August 12, 2017, white supremacist rally also […]

Day 7: Witnesses describe Fields’ arrest

The prosecution rested today in the trial of James Alex Fields Jr. and the defense began its case, both sides focusing on the defendant during and after his arrest August 12, 2017. In prosecution videos of Fields after he was taken into police custody, he repeatedly apologized, asked about any injuries, and hyperventilated for more […]

James Fields pleads not guilty to federal crimes

The man charged with 30 federal hate crimes, including the murder of Heather Heyer by ramming his Dodge Challenger into a crowd of counterprotesters on August 12, gave a clipped introduction to the judge when he announced himself as James Alex Fields Jr. on July 5. Each hate crime charge carries a maximum sentence of […]

Conspiracy theory? Petitioner wants videos of fatal crash released

In a widely viewed YouTube video, a Fairfax man says he’s able to disprove information disseminated by the Charlottesville Police Department about the fatal car attack on August 12. Now William Evans is on a mission to find two videos shown publicly in a December 14 court hearing that could help him understand what happened […]

Victim’s voice: Ohio man injured in August 12 attack speaks out

When Ohio resident Bill Burke came to protest Charlottesville’s white nationalist Unite the Right rally, he was expecting a peaceful assembly. Instead, he got plowed into by a 20-year-old driving a Dodge Challenger. “I can remember the feeling of people hitting up against me,” he says in an email. “I’m not sure if the car […]

Murder charge: James Fields in court

Two days after he plowed into a group of peaceful counterprotesters with his car, white nationalist James Alex Fields Jr. appeared via webcam in Charlottesville General District Court Monday morning. The Maumee, Ohio, man, 20, is charged with second-degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding and a hit-and-run for driving his Dodge Challenger down Fourth […]

Where were the police?

A month ago during the July 8 KKK rally, police were accused of overreacting and escalating things when they deployed tear gas on protesters at an event that was already breaking up. At the August 12 Unite the Right rally, they faced the opposite complaint: That they stood and watched assaults take place. Civil rights […]