CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. | A jury recommended life plus 419 years on Tuesday for a man convicted of killing a woman and injuring dozens when he rammed his car into counterprotesters at a white nationalist rally in Virginia.
James Alex Fields Jr. stood, devoid of emotion, with his hands folded in front of him as a court clerk read the verdict, which now must be taken under advisement by the judge, who will issue the final sentence. Judge Richard Moore scheduled a sentencing hearing for March 29.
The jury reached its verdict after deliberating for nearly four hours spanning two days. Judges in Virginia often impose the sentence recommended by juries. Under state law, they can impose lower sentences than what the jury recommends, but cannot increase them.
Before issuing its recommendation, the jury asked Moore if the sentences would run consecutively or concurrently. He replied that sentences usually run consecutively, but that jurors could recommend concurrent sentences if that was their will.
The jury deliberated for just under two hours Monday after hearing emotional testimony from the mother of Heather Heyer, a 32-year-old paralegal and activist who was killed when Fields rammed his car into a crowd at a “Unite the Right” white nationalist rally in Charlottesville on Aug. 12, 2017.
