Charlottesville attacker gets second life sentence

A judge in Virginia on Monday sentenced James Alex Fields Jr. to life plus 419 years in prison for deliberately driving his car into a group of counterprotesters at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017. The state sentence followed last month’s life sentence issued for 29 federal hate crimes for the incident that killed 32-year-old Heather Heyer and injured two dozen others.

Heyer’s mother, Susan Bro, said Sunday that Fields is “at least in the hands of justice,” adding, “Not only does the United States hold these actions to be quite serious with serious consequences, but also the state of Virginia is not tolerating them. And I think that message was sent loud and clear today.”

Virginia Circuit Court Judge Richard Moore’s sentence follows the recommendation of a state jury, which convicted the 22-year-old Fields in December of murder and malicious wounding charges.