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we’re expecting to hear the end of the commonwealth’s case against james alex fields jr. this morning. a recap of witnesses from yesterday, the third day of the trial, is here.
well the commonwealth has not yet rested. there were motions heard in chambers this morning - the judge ruled, over the defense’s objections, to admit into evidence a picture of hitler that fields included with his text to his mother on august 11, 2017
he also ruled to admit, in part, also over the defense’s objections, portions of two calls fields made from jail to his mother, one in december of 2017 and one in march of this year.
in those calls, fields sounds angry. he tells his mother the media is showing “propaganda” about him. “they’re trying to push a narrative.” he tells his mother that the antifa were carrying ISIS flags that day, to which she says she doesn’t think nazi flags are much better.
in the dec 2017 call, fields tells his mother “she’s one of those anti-white commies. it doesn’t matter. she’s a fucking communist.” she tells him to stop talking, probably because she knows the call is recorded. “she is the enemy. you need to hear me, mother,” he says angrily.
the portion of the call that would tell us who the “she” in that conversation refers to is not played, likely because it would be prejudicial. i’m willing to hazard a guess he is referring to the woman he murdered, heather heyer.
we’ve heard from two witnesses so far today, and it sounds like the commonwealth may rest after lunch after redirect on the second witness.
charlottesville detective steve young was back on the stand this morning. his body camera footage from the arrest and the magistrate’s office was played. they also played video from the interview room when fields learned that one of his victims had died.
i think most of us have spent a lot of time thinking about this case. about what drives a person to do something like this. about the ideology that shapes the landscape in which this occurred. but personally, i guess i hadn’t thought a lot about the actual PERSON who did it.
fields was sitting in an interrogation room, hands cuffed in his lap, when he asked detective kirby “are they ok?” kirby tells him people have serious injuries and that one of them has passed away. fields immediately begins loudly hyperventilating.
the choking, gasping, sobbing sounds are audible from the video for several minutes. in the courtroom, fields is anxiously tapping a pencil on the defense table. the version of himself from over a year ago is having a panic attack.
i’m not a psychologist. i’ve never spoken to mr fields. but i did used to teach preschool. and i have a strong sense of the difference between genuine remorse and the reaction of a child who is upset they got caught.
there is a fundamental difference between remorse and the self pity of someone who realizes their actions have real consequences.
james alex fields was not crying for heather heyer. he was crying for himself.
james alex fields was not crying for heather heyer. he was crying for himself.
there’s a lot to get into with the videos we heard today in court. we’re unlikely to hear testimony from fields himself during the trial, so these videos may be the only glimpses into his mind that we get. i want to do this justice and not get soup on my notes, so more later.
headed back into the courtroom now. i anticipate the commonwealth will have a few questions on redirect for the FBI data analyst who just testified, and they may rest their case after that.
the defense always makes a few motions at this stage in a trial, so we may not hear any defense witnesses today. if we’re very lucky, we may have another early day today!
the commonwealth had nothing further for their last witness and rested right after lunch. the defense made an obligatory motion to strike, which the judge ruled against. we actually heard from the defense’s first 4 witnesses and still finished before 5pm.
the judge told the jury they can expect to hear from 8-9 witnesses for the defense tomorrow and 1 thursday morning. we will likely see closing arguments on thursday.
those of you with a keen eye on the docket might be saying, but this trial is scheduled through the end of next week! deliberations may not take too terribly long, but in VA juries also deliberate on sentencing recommendations, which i suspect will take longer than the verdict.
after the jury delivers their verdict, early next week perhaps, we’ll hear victim impact statements. the jury will have a chance to hear from victims, about how their lives were changed by what happened. then they’ll return to the jury room to recommend a sentence.
as gut wrenching and painful and tearful as it was to hear from the commonwealth, to hear testimony from survivors, to hear the details of heather’s autopsy... i think hearing the defense’s case is going to be worse. uglier. i’m not looking forward to writing this.
the audio recap of today's episode is up. as always, content warning for A12. no descriptions of the attack in this one, but the discussion of video of fields & statements he made in the aftermath of the attack may be distressingsoundcloud.com/wtju/the-trial…UKPA
as always, there's a transcript in the episode notes if you want to skim through to see if the content will be ok for you to listen to. there are a lot of direct quotes from fields, both from video of his arrest & questioning and from phone calls to his mother.
also it's nearly 2am and if we're being honest, i didn't even give the episode a single listen all the way through to make sure i edited out all the false starts, coughs, and mispronunciations. so... here's hoping 🤷♀️
we'll hear from 8-9 defense witnesses tomorrow, probably a couple of psychiatrists and a couple of fellow unite the right participants who rode in fields' car right before the attack. we may also hear from fields' mother.
