Texas Appeals Court Reduces Alex Jones Punitive Damages to $1.5 Million

A Texas appeals court on August 21, 2026, significantly reduced the punitive damages Alex Jones must pay to the parents of a child killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, cutting a $45.2 million award to $1.5 million. The unanimous ruling from the Texas Third Court of Appeals, however, left the core liability finding and the compensatory damages portion of the judgment intact.

The case was brought by Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, whose 6-year-old son, Jesse Lewis, was among the 20 children and six educators killed in the 2012 shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. Jones, the founder of Infowars, was found liable by default for defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress after repeatedly promoting false claims that the massacre was staged. A jury in 2022 awarded the parents approximately $4.11 million in compensatory damages and $45.2 million in exemplary, or punitive, damages.

In its opinion, the appellate panel ruled that the trial court improperly allowed the parents to amend their lawsuit after the jury's verdict to seek damages above a state statutory cap. Texas law generally limits exemplary damages to $750,000 per defendant unless plaintiffs meet...