Charlottesville car-ramming suspect denied bail

The Ohio man accused of ramming his car into a crowd of protesters and killing a woman at a white nationalist rally in Virginia was denied bond Monday morning pending being assigned an attorney. James Alex Fields Jr., 20, faces second-degree murder and other charges. Judge Robert Downer said the Charlottesville, Va., public defenders’ office informed him it could not represent Fields because a relative of someone in the office was injured in Saturday’s protest. Charles Weber, a local attorney, will be appointed to represent Fields, Downer said. The next scheduled court hearing is Aug. 25, though Fields’ attorney could request a bond hearing before then. Fields is charged in the death of Heather Heyer, 32, of Charlottesville. She died when a car slammed into a crowd of people protesting the white nationalist rally Saturday. One of Fields’ former high school teachers said Sunday that Fields was fascinated with Nazism, idolized Adolf Hitler, and had been singled out by school officials in the ninth grade for his “deeply held, radical” convictions on race.