John Hill – C-VILLE Weekly

Day 9: Closing arguments in Fields’ trial

It’s in the jury’s hands now.

The prosecution and defense have given their closing arguments on the ninth day of James Alex Fields Jr.’s first-degree murder trial.

The man charged with killing Heather Heyer and injuring many others when he rammed his car into a crowd at an August 12, 2017, white supremacist rally also faces being convicted of five counts of aggravated malicious wounding, three counts of malicious wounding, and one count of hit and run.

Prosecutor Nina Antony encouraged the jury to find him guilty on all 10 counts, which would mean they believe he acted with malice, and that his actions that day were premeditated and intentional.

“It’s not about what Mr. Fields did, it’s about what his intent was when he did it,” said Antony during her closing.

Narrating for a final time what happened in videos that the jurors have likely memorized over the past two weeks, Antony said Fields turned onto Fourth Street, where two cars and a group of activists were in front of him, and where nothing but empty road was behind him. He briefly stopped his Dodge Challenger and then started reversing. He could have continued backing up to get off of Fourth Street if that’s what he truly desired, she said, but instead he stopped, idled, and then “something change[d] for him.” That’s when he raced his car forward into the crowd.

Months before, he had posted to Instagram an eerily similar image of a car plowing into a group of protesters.

“He seizes that opportunity to make his Instagram post a reality,” said Antony.

Though the defense’s witnesses testified that Fields was essentially calm, cool, and collected minutes before he sped into the group, Antony said it was in that moment of idling that his demeanor changed. She said he then showed the same “hatred” he previously displayed in text conversations with his mom, in which she asked him to be careful at the Unite the Right rally, and to which he replied with an image of Adolf Hitler accompanied by a message that said, “We’re not the [ones] who need to be careful.”

And though he was immediately apologetic to the police officers who took him into custody after two brief pursuits, Antony said he showed his true colors in two recorded jailhouse conversations between he and his mom months later, in which—among other things—he said, “it doesn’t fucking matter” that Heyer died, and called her mother, Susan Bro, a “communist” and “the enemy.”

This case is about more than differing political ideologies, however.

“It’s about those bodies that he left strewn on the ground,” Antony said. “It’s about Heather.”

In the defense’s closing arguments, attorney Denise Lunsford noted the “crowd mentality” of the protesters and counterprotesters attending the Unite the Right rally.

“A lot of people were behaving badly that day,” she said. “That’s just about as simple as you can put it.”

Though numerous witnesses described the band of activists that Fields sped into as happy, cheerful, and celebratory, Lunsford told the jury, “The difference between a joyful crowd and a hostile mob is in the eye of the beholder.”

She said Fields thought he was being attacked from behind when he plowed into them, which is what he told the magistrate after being taken to jail that day.

“We know there is no one behind him,” again countered Antony. Photos, videos, and witness testimony corroborate that, she said.

Lunsford asked the jury to put themselves in Fields’ shoes. He was 20 years old at the time, overwhelmed by all that happened that day, and as indicated by the directions he had just typed into his GPS, he was just trying to go home to Maumee, Ohio. He’d been spattered with urine earlier in the day and had exchanged choice words with people he calls “antifa.” And when, he alleged, a crowd of them started rushing his car, he thought he was in danger.

Fields didn’t stop at the scene of the crime because his glasses had been knocked onto his floorboard and he couldn’t see whether he’d injured anyone, according to Lunsford. Without his glasses, he also couldn’t see police chasing him, she added.

Antony noted that, even without his glasses, he backed up in a straight line, dodged cars, and efficiently made turns.

A photo taken of the front of the Challenger as Fields reverses away from the crowd he just ran over has been admitted into evidence. His face is visible. He stares intently.

“That is not the face of someone who is scared,” said Antony. “That is the face of anger, of hatred. That is the face of malice.”

Jurors will officially begin deliberating tomorrow at 9am.

Day 7: Witnesses describe Fields’ arrest

Day 6: How Heather died—Witnesses detail severity of injuries

Day 5: More victim and police testimony in James Fields’ trial

Day 4: Jury seated, testimony begins in James Fields’ trial

Day 7: Witnesses describe Fields’ arrest

The prosecution rested today in the trial of James Alex Fields Jr. and the defense began its case, both sides focusing on the defendant during and after his arrest August 12, 2017.

In prosecution videos of Fields after he was taken into police custody, he repeatedly apologized, asked about any injuries, and hyperventilated for more than two minutes during his interrogation. The jury also heard recordings of two phone calls from jail between Fields and his mother, in which he seemed much less apologetic.

In a December 7, 2017, call, Fields can be heard asking his mom an unintelligible question about “that one girl who died.” We can assume that this is Heather Heyer, whom he’s on trial for murdering when he drove his gray Dodge Challenger into a crowd on Fourth Street.

He then mentions that Heyer’s mother has been giving “speeches and shit,” and “slandering” him. “She’s one of those anti-white communists,” Fields says on the recording. And his mother, seemingly reacting to his insensitivity, points out that Heyer died, and that her mother loved her.

Responds Fields, “It doesn’t fucking matter, she’s a communist. It’s not up for questioning. She is. She’s the enemy.”

In a March 21, 2018, phone call between Fields and his mom, Fields complained that he was “not doing anything wrong” on August 12, “and then I get mobbed by a violent group of terrorist for defending my person.”

And he claimed “antifa” were waving ISIS flags at the Unite the Right rally. His mom expressed some kind of intelligible dissent, and suggested he stop talking. “They’re communist, mother, they do support them,” he countered.

Also entered into evidence were text messages between Fields and his mom before the rally. On August 8, he told her he’d gotten the weekend off to go to the rally, and on August 10, she responded with, “Be careful.” And on August 11, he said, “We’re not the [ones] who need to be careful.” He attached an image of Adolf Hitler along with it.

Before resting his case, Commonwealth’s Attorney Joe Platania also played bodycam footage from Detective Steve Young, who appeared on the scene of Monticello Avenue and Blenheim Road as Fields was being detained.

In the audio of the interaction, Fields appeared to be cooperating with police, and repeated multiple iterations of “I’m sorry.”

When Young asked what he was sorry for, he said, “I didn’t want to hurt people, but I thought they were attacking me. …Even if they are [unintelligible], I still feel bad for them. They’re still people.”

He said he had an empty suitcase—”a family heirloom”—in his trunk, and asked police not to throw it away.

Fields also indicated leg pain, and when asked if he needed medical attention, he said, “I’d prefer if they see to the people who were rioting.”

He asked multiple times about any injuries sustained when he drove his car into the crowd on Fourth Street. And once he was taken to the Charlottesville Police Department for interrogation, he finally got his answer.

“There are people with severe injuries. I know one has passed away,” answered Detective Brady Kirby, as heard on the recording. For the next two or three minutes, Fields can be heard hyperventilating. He simultaneously cries while struggling to breathe.

At this point in the courtroom, Fields sat hunched over between his two attorneys, watching the video intently and quickly flicking his pen back and forth. Usually seated to the right of his lawyers, he traded places with one of them for a clearer view.

Once at the local jail, Fields could be heard telling the magistrate in another recording that as he pulled onto Fourth Street, he had his GPS turned on and he was just trying to go home. He saw two cars stopped at the bottom of the street and began backing up. He said he felt a “really weird” emotion once he saw the counterprotesters.

“I didn’t know what to do,” he said, and never mentioned driving into them.

He also requested to have his face washed before getting his mugshot taken.

After the commonwealth rested, defense attorney John Hill moved to strike all of the charges against his client except for the hit-and-run. He said the prosecutors failed to prove that Fields showed intent to kill and actual malice. But Judge Rick Moore overruled the motions, and said, “I don’t know what intent he could have had other than to kill people.”

The defense called four witnesses, including Deputy Paul Critzer, who chased Fields in his cruiser and eventually cuffed him.

Critzer said he followed Fields for almost a mile, and Fields eventually pulled over on Monticello Avenue. The deputy then instructed him to put his hands outside the window, and started moving toward the Challenger when Fields drew his hands back inside and smashed on the gas. Critzer then chased him for what he described as less than a football field of length before Fields stopped again, and following Critzer’s commands, he threw his hands and keys outside of his window.

That’s when Critzer approached him from the passenger side—another officer had met Fields on the driver’s side—and slapped the cuffs on him.

Deputy Fred Kirschnick described Fields as “very quiet” “very wide-eyed” and “sweating profusely,” as he waited to be taken to the police department for questioning. He smelled a “light to moderate” stench of urine on Fields, which matches the description of a yellow stain on his shirt that others had testified to.

Lunsford also called city officer Tammy Shifflet, who was stationed at the intersection of Fourth and Market streets that morning, and who left her post before the car attack because things had gotten too chaotic.

She said she called her commander to ask for assistance, and he directed her to meet up with other officers. There was a small barricade she described as a “sawhorse” blocking Fourth Street when she left.

The defense is expected to call approximately eight more witnesses. Closing arguments could happen Thursday with a jury verdict as soon as Friday, according to the judge.