Alex Jones, the host of InfoWars, spent years telling his audience that the Sandy Hook shooting, the December 14, 2012 attack at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, was staged and that grieving parents were actors. Families of the victims answered with defamation and emotional-distress lawsuits in Texas and Connecticut. This explainer sets out who sued, what the courts decided, and where the cases stand, with links to the court records and news reports.
Status as of November 1, 2026
- Connecticut (Lafferty v. Jones): about $1.4 billion judgment. The Appellate Court cut about $150 million (AP), and the U.S. Supreme Court declined Jones’s appeal in October 2025 (AP).
- Texas (Heslin and Lewis v. Jones): on August 21, 2026 the Texas Third Court of Appeals cut exemplary damages to $750,000 per parent ($1.5 million), leaving about $6 million in total. Compensatory damages were unchanged (opinion; AP).
- Texas (Pozner and De La Rosa v. Jones): liability by default (2021). In October 2023 a bankruptcy court ruled the debt can’t be discharged (ruling). No damages trial has been held.
- Infowars: a court-appointed receiver’s licensing deal with The Onion was stayed on appeal. On September 9, 2026 the Texas Supreme Court declined to lift the stays (Law360).
- Payments: Jones has not paid the judgments (AP).
Why the families sued
The families said Jones’s broadcasts did more than spread a false theory. They said his claims sent a stream of harassment, stalking and threats toward parents who had already lost a child. Lenny Pozner, whose six-year-old son Noah was the youngest victim, founded HONR Network in 2014 after hoaxers began targeting Sandy Hook families online and in person.
Texas: Pozner and De La Rosa v. Jones
In April 2018, Noah’s parents, Lenny Pozner and Veronique De La Rosa, sued Jones, Infowars LLC and Free Speech Systems LLC in Travis County, Texas (Cause No. D-1-GN-18-001842) over InfoWars broadcasts from April and June 2017. Jones tried to have the case thrown out under the Texas Citizens Participation Act, a law meant to stop lawsuits that chill free speech. On November 5, 2019, the Texas Third Court of Appeals affirmed the denial of that motion and held that the parents were not limited-purpose public figures, which meant they did not have to meet the higher actual-malice standard that applies to public figures.
On September 27, 2021, the trial court entered a default judgment against Jones and Free Speech Systems because they had failed to comply with their discovery obligations. After Jones filed for bankruptcy, the federal bankruptcy court in Houston ruled on October 19, 2023 that Jones had willfully and maliciously injured Pozner and De La Rosa, so the debt cannot be wiped out in bankruptcy. The court noted that no damages trial had yet been held in their case.
Texas: Heslin and Lewis v. Jones
Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, the parents of Jesse Lewis, brought a separate Texas case. The trial court entered a default on liability in September 2021, and in August 2022 a jury in Austin awarded them $4.1 million in compensatory damages and $45.2 million in punitive damages, about $49.3 million in all. On August 21, 2026, the Texas Third Court of Appeals upheld the default and the compensatory damages but ruled that the trial court should not have let the parents amend their petition after trial to get around Texas’s statutory cap on exemplary damages. It reduced the exemplary damages to $750,000 for each parent and affirmed the judgment as modified.
Connecticut: $965 million verdict
In Connecticut, relatives of eight victims and a former FBI agent who responded to the shooting sued Jones and Free Speech Systems. The judge found Jones liable by default for failing to comply with discovery, and on October 12, 2022, a jury ordered Jones to pay $965 million in compensatory damages. Connecticut’s Appellate Court upheld the verdict in December 2024 while throwing out part of the award. On October 14, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear Jones’s appeal, leaving in place a judgment of about $1.4 billion.
Why these cases matter
The cases show that spreading false claims about victims of a mass shooting can carry real legal consequences, and that defendants who refuse to take part in discovery can lose by default. For families who are harassed online, they also show the value of keeping records: the broadcasts, posts and threats that were saved became evidence in court.
HONR Network helps victims of online harassment and hoaxes document abuse, report it to platforms, and pursue the delisting from search of content that targets them. Read more about Lenny Pozner’s own cases on our legal achievements page.
Frequently asked questions
Who sued Alex Jones over Sandy Hook?
Families of children and educators killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School sued in Texas and Connecticut. In Texas, Lenny Pozner and Veronique De La Rosa, the parents of Noah Pozner, sued in one case, and Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, the parents of Jesse Lewis, sued in another. In Connecticut, relatives of eight victims and a former FBI agent who responded to the shooting sued together.
Why was Alex Jones found liable without a trial on the facts?
In both states, judges entered default judgments on liability because Jones and his companies failed to comply with their discovery obligations. Juries then decided only how much in damages to award.
How much was Alex Jones ordered to pay?
A Texas jury awarded Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis about $49.3 million in 2022, and in August 2026 a Texas appeals court reduced the exemplary damages to $750,000 for each parent ($1.5 million in total). A Connecticut jury awarded $965 million in compensatory damages in October 2022, and the Connecticut judgment totaled about $1.4 billion when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear Jones’s appeal in October 2025.
What happened in Lenny Pozner’s case against Alex Jones?
A Travis County court entered a default judgment on liability against Jones and Free Speech Systems in 2021. In October 2023, a federal bankruptcy court ruled that Jones willfully and maliciously injured Pozner and De La Rosa, so the debt cannot be discharged in bankruptcy, and noted that a damages trial had not yet been held.
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