James Fields Guilty of First-Degree Murder in Death of Heather Heyer – The New York Times

“There’s no evidence he came prepared to do any harm,” said John Hill, a defense lawyer, during the trial. The defense called Dwayne Dixon, an anti-racism activist, to testify, and he acknowledged shouting at a gray car while he had an AR-15 rifle slung over his shoulder.

But video footage from that day showed Mr. Fields’s car idling and then backing up before it plowed ahead into the crowd.

Jurors were visibly moved by testimony of victims describing the crash. Mr. Fields drove away — a sneaker still stuck in the grill of the car — and was stopped on a road heading out of town. In a conversation with a police officer, his voice flat and calm, he said, “I didn’t want to hurt people, but I thought they were attacking me.” When he was told that a person died and many were injured, he gasped and sobbed.

A prosecutor, Nina-Alice Antony, argued that Mr. Fields clearly had “specific intent to kill a human being,” even if he had not singled out any particular person in the crowd.

The rally, which purported to be a defense of the statues of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, which some in the city were trying to remove, tore at the fabric of Charlottesville even before it was held, as anti-racism activists begged city officials not to hold it, warning that there would be violence.

City leaders eventually tried to stop the rally from being held, but a judge allowed it to move forward, citing free speech rights.

The violence that broke out, in particular the deadly crash, gave elected officials new ammunition in their attempts to get judges to curtail white nationalist events.