In Charlottesville, Virginia today, a state judge sentenced James Fields to a *second* life prison term for killing anti-racism protester Heather Heyer.
Fields, 22, is a self-professed Nazi. Two years ago, he drove his car into a crowd of people protesting white supremacists in Charlottesville, and killed Heather Heyer.
Charlottesville Circuit Court Judge Richard Moore today sentenced Fields to life plus 419 years, as recommended by the jury that in December 2018 found Fields guilty of murder plus 8 counts of malicious wounding plus a hit-and-run.
“Mr. Fields, you deserve the sentence the jury gave. What you did was an act of terror,” said Judge Moore.
Fields, a resident of Maumee, Ohio, who appeared in court on Monday in striped prison garb, had already received a separate life sentence without the possibility of parole after pleading guilty in March to federal hate-crime charges stemming from the violence in Charlottesville on Aug. 12, 2017.
Heather Heyer, 32, one of the counter-demonstrators, was killed in the attack, which also injured many others.
Heyer’s mother, Susan Bro, said in a statement read in court on Monday that she hoped Fields finds reclamation in prison. “But I also hope he never sees the light of day outside of prison,” she said.
