Jury orders Alex Jones to pay Sandy Hook parents $45.2M in punitive damages

A jury has ordered Alex Jones to pay the parents of a child who died in the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting an additional $45.2 million in punitive damages, after awarding them $4.1 million earlier this week.

The Associated Press reported that Jones will have to pay a combined $49.3 million, though parents Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis had sought $150 million. The plaintiffs' son, then-first grader Jessie Lewis died in the shooting alongside more than two dozen others.

The jury awarded them the $4.1 million in compensatory damages earlier this week.

After the 2012 massacre, Jones suggested the U.S. government staged the shooting, ostensibly to justify gun control measures, and alleged that the victims' parents were paid actors.

Jones acknowledge on Wednesday that the shooting occurred. "Especially since I’ve met the parents. It’s 100% real," he said. "I never intentionally tried to hurt you. I never said your name until this came to court."