WATERBURY, Conn. — The trial for Alex Jones continues into week three Tuesday morning with a day off expected this Friday. The trial is currently ahead of schedule and is estimated to wrap up by mid-October.
Tuesday's testimony started with the father and mother of a Sandy Hook shooting victim.
Ian and Nicole Hockley lost 6-year-old Dylan to the shooting that also took 19 other students and six educators on Dec. 14, 2012.
Ian grew up in England and met Nicole while she was studying abroad for college. They got married and had sons Jake and Dylan.
The decision to move to the United States was in part due to seeking services more beneficial for Dylan, who was diagnosed with autism at a young age.
“It was just night and day for his care, so I really chose the [Sandy Hook] school for Dylan,” Ian Hockley said.
He remembered speaking with the principal of Sandy Hook about the special education programs as he was touring area school districts and homes in late 2010 to make the big jump across the pond.
“Dawn just loved all of the kids,” Ian Hockley said of Principal Dawn Lafferty Hochsprung. “There was very clearly a focus on special education needs.”
“I just had so much joy in that period of time [between 2011 and summer 2012]," Nicole Hockley added during her testimony. "I was just so happy being with my kids, and having just that time with them was very precious.”
Hochsprung died trying to save students by confronting the shooter as he barged into the school.
“Anyone who spent more than five minutes knew that that’s what she was born to do,” Dawn’s daughter Erica Lafferty said during testimony last week. “She loved kids more than life itself.”
Both Ian and Nicole Hockley were among the many parents who said they were targeted by those who believed the shooting was a hoax.
"I was called out for smiling because I was uplifted and happy by it [stories told at Dylan's memorial service], so I was being attacked for that, how could I be smiling," Ian Hockley said.
Nicole Hockley recalled getting threatening direct messages, emails, mail, phone calls, including phone calls to friends looking for her, as well as Facebook messages sent to her as recently as August 2022.
“This would keep me up at night, seeing these things and responding to them,” Nicole Hockley said.
She worked with the FBI to report these threatening messages just months after the shooting. It led to at least one arrest, according to the email evidence presented to the jury.
The harassment continued as Ian Hockley became more public by launching Dylan's Wings of Change program.
“This is really serious now. This is not something you can brush off, this is really real and really dangerous,” Ian Hockley said.
“This wins out, I’m going to share my story about Dylan, so I just have to be careful," Ian Hockley said on weighing the risks of being harassed or attacked for continuing Dylan's Wings of Change campaign. "Knowing who is there, watching the people who come in.”
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The testimony did not continue last Friday in Waterbury, and the session was prematurely adjourned after a surprise update from Alex Jones' legal team and other housekeeping issues amongst the counsel.
Jones derailed the proceedings from the outside when he offered remarks in an impromptu press conference on the courthouse steps. Remarks in which the plaintiff’s attorneys said Jones “continued his efforts to undermine the trial.”
RELATED: Alex Jones defamation trial into Sandy Hook hoax claims ends early without testimony for Day 8
The defense also decided not to cross-examine Jones on the stand, partly due to the tense ending to Thursday's session.
Alex Jones appeared in court but did not testify Friday. There are plans for him to come back next week, possibly Wednesday or Thursday, when his defense attorney Norm Pattis can cross-examine him.
"We elected not to cross-examine Mr. Jones. We were satisfied with how he handled things," Pattis told the media after court adjourned Friday.
"Mr. Jones will testify, and he'll be the last witness and will have the last word," Pattis added.
Jones said earlier on Friday that testifying this week would also give him more chance to “have a little bit of room to put on my case.”
As a result of Jones not testifying and rising concerns amongst counsel about what Jones said during his press conference during morning recess, the jury was dismissed as the lawyers and judge wrapped things up for the day.
Before dismissing the jurors, the judge implored that the jury could not do independent research and reminded them after she had a previous discussion with the council that Jones allegedly encouraged the jury to do research during his latest press conference.
“If anyone in your lives, family or friends approaches you and says you actually can do independent research, I am here to tell you that you may not,” instructed Judge Barbara Bellis.
Jones was already found liable for damages for calling the Sandy Hook shooting on Dec. 14, 2012, a hoax on his InfoWars show.
A separate defamation trial over the summer ordered Jones to pay nearly $50 million to the Lewis family, who lost their son Jesse in the shooting.
In this Connecticut case, the families of eight victims and an FBI agent that responded to the shooting filed for damages against Jones, saying his claims saying Sandy Hook was stage had turned them into targets.
Pattis argues that any damages should be limited and accuses the victims' relatives of exaggerating the harm the lies caused them.
A third similar suit, out of Texas, is awaiting trial.
The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting took away the lives of 20 students and six educators.
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