Prosecutors could rest their case as early as Tuesday in Charlottesville, Virginia, where James Alex Fields is standing trial for a deadly car crash at a white nationalist rally that killed one counterprotester and injured others in August 2017.
Fields, 21, faces a possible life sentence if convicted of first-degree murder in the death of Heather Heyer. The 32-year-old paralegal’s name has become synonymous with the trauma wrought by the Unite the Right rally, which made international headlines and escalated America’s culture wars by bringing extremist ideologies into the open.
Fields faces eight more counts related to eight people who were injured and one count of failing to stop at an accident involving a death.
The trial began on Thursday in a case focused on Fields’ intent. Testimony resumes Monday morning.
The commonwealth contends that Fields’ actions were premeditated with the intention to harm the counterprotesters.
Survivors of the deadly crash testified last week that the mood among counterprotesters was upbeat and celebratory before Fields slammed his Dodge Challenger into another car, triggering a chain reaction that hurled people in different directions. A stream of witnesses recounted the chaotic scene and testified to a litany of injuries they suffered in the crash, some of which they are still recovering from.
When defense lawyers present their case — which could happen this week — they are expected to call some of the same witnesses to support their version of events: that Fields acted of fear of the counterprotesters and not with criminal intent.
Focus turns to Fields’ behavior
Those who knew Fields at his Ohio high school said he held extreme views and a fascination with Nazism. To support the argument that Fields acted out of anger toward counterprotesters, the commonwealth’s attorneys called a police witness to provide a step-by-step tracking of Fields’ actions before, during and after the incident.
Charlottesville Police Det. Steven Young testified on Friday that footage from the Unite the Right rally earlier in the day shows Fields chanting homophobic and anti-Semitic slurs as he marched with others.
A short time later, helicopter footage shows his car driving into the crowd.
“Is it fair to say Mr. Fields does not stop after hitting the crowd?” Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Nina Antony asked the detective.
“Yes,” Young said. “He took off again, then stopped.”
The commonwealth’s attorneys said they intend to introduce images that Fields shared on Instagram three months before the deadly crash.
The two memes show a car running into a group of people described as protesters. One was shared in a private message and the other in a public post. Judge Richard Moore granted the commonwealth’s request to show them to the jury despite objections from the defense.
Image takes center stage
The commonwealth says the memes are reminiscent of images that emerged from the scene of the deadly crash. One such image showing people flying through the air became an indelible moment — one that earned the photographer who shot it a Pulitzer Prize.
The photojournalist who captured the image testified on Friday that the Unite the Right rally was set to be his last day at the Charlottesville paper, The Daily Progress.
While he was watching the crowd of counterprotesters he saw the Challenger slowly backing up the hill. “I thought it was trying to get out of the way,” Ryan Kelly testified.
Then, he said he heard tires screech and saw the car speed past him on 4th Street.
“I saw the car accelerate the whole way into the protestors,” he said. “It was going fast into the crowd.”
