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James Fields, 21, a declared supporter of the neo-Nazi belief, was convicted on Friday of the death of a woman crushed during a protest against a white supremacy protest in Charlottesville .
In August 2017, Fields fired on the car against a group that had protested against the "Unite the Right" act, which had killed activist Heather Heyer and injured 35.
The jury, seven women and five men, more than six hours before the verdict. In addition to first-degree manslaughter, Fields was also convicted of five counts of serious injury, three counts of intentional waiver and an injury waiver.
Fields risked life imprisonment for Heyer's death and up to 20 years for other crimes. At a second trial to which he will always be subjected, he could be sentenced to death for hate crime.
The trial lasted nine days. Meanwhile, prosecutors sought to prove that he intended to hurt the protesters, while the defense team had been trying to badert that Fields was panicked and had acted in self-defense.
On the charge side, there was an exchange of messages between Fields and the mother in which she asked her son to pay attention. "We are not the ones who have to be careful," he replied in a message including the photo of Adolf Hitler.
Prosecutors also showed a charge reported several months ago on their Instagram account by the accused and carrying the image of a car launched against him. a crowd, with the phrase "You have the right to protest, but I'm late for work."
One of the Prosecution witnesses, Clifford Lee Thomas Thomas, said that Fields was accelerating at a speed of 45 km / h. before hitting a Toyota Camry
A filming of the day also shows the car of the accused who slowly crosses an intersection and recedes, before heading to the crowd.
The defense put forward the following argument: The fields, earlier in the day, had been touched by something that looked like urine and that felt lonely without protection. "He thought people were looking for him," said lawyer Denise Lunsford. "The difference between a gay crowd and an angry crowd is in the eyes of the viewer."
The "Unite the Right" march was convened to protest the decision to remove a statue of General Robert E. Lee (1807-1870). ) of a local park.
Lee commanded Confederate troops in the United States Civil War (1861-1865), when the southern states fought to separate from the abolitionist North and retain their slaves. During the demonstration, the white supremacists wore the red flag with the starry blue cross, neo-Nazi symbols and the Ku Klux Klan's supremacist organization.
The reaction of US President Donald Trump to events was strongly criticized at the time. The Republican first declared that there were "very good people" in both groups of protesters.
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