James Alex Fields Jr.

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James Alex Fields Jr. (born 1997) is a white supremacist and Neo-Nazi associated with the Alt-Right movement. He killed Heather Heyer during the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in August 2017 after being chased by a protestor with a gun.

Fields faces 20 years to life on charges of hate crimes, and is expected to be sentenced at a later date. On July 5, 2018, Fields pleaded not guilty to all 30 counts of federal hate crime charges, but on March 27, 2019, Fields altered his plea. Having originally pleaded not guilty on all charges, this was changed to guilty on 29 of 30 hate crime charges. Is speculated that this was a plea bargain to avoid the possibility of the death penalty as the option of capital punishment was removed from his potential sentence as a result of the alteration.

He was sentenced to life in prison on June 28, 2019.

Biography

According to Fields' high school history teacher, Derek Weimer, Fields was prescribed an antipsychotic as anger management medication after he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia. Fields told a judge that he was receiving treatment for bipolar disorder, anxiety, depression and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Fields threatened his mother with violence on multiple occasions. In November 2010, she locked herself in a bathroom, afraid of her son. Fields's mother reported to the police that he had threatened to beat her, took her phone, struck her head, and put his hands over her mouth after she told him to stop playing video games. In February 2011, Fields's mother reported to the police at 5:20 a.m. that he had not come home; she said that he was wearing a T-shirt and shorts. Two hours later, she reported to the police that Fields "was home and acting lethargic"; he threatened to run away "if police came to the condo." In October 2011, Fields threatened her with a 12-inch (30 cm) knife; she called the police the next day to say that her son had been "very threatening" toward her and that she was scared and did not feel in control of the situation because she was in a wheelchair. In November 2011, Fields spat in his mother's face and threatened her, and a woman requested that the police help Fields's mother get him to a hospital for assessment; the log for the call reads, "Mom is scared he is going to become violent here." Fields was subsequently arrested and held in juvenile detention.

Fields' supremacist beliefs date back to when he was in high school, where classmates claimed that he often praised Adolf Hitler and drew swastikas.