James Fields: Charlottesville Attack, Convictions, and Sentence

James Alex Fields Jr. is the Ohio man who drove his car into a crowd of counterprotesters at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, on August 12, 2017, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer and injuring more than 30 others. He was 20 years old at the time. A Virginia jury convicted him of first-degree murder, and he later pleaded guilty to 29 federal hate crimes. He is serving life in federal prison, to be followed by a state sentence of life plus 419 years.

What Happened on August 12, 2017

Fields drove his Dodge Challenger into people who had gathered to counterprotest the Unite the Right rally, a gathering of neo-Nazis, white nationalists, and Ku Klux Klan members organized by Jason Kessler and Richard Spencer to oppose the city’s plan to remove a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee.¹

Federal prosecutors said Fields stopped his car on Fourth Street, observed the crowd, then reversed before rapidly accelerating forward. He ran through a stop sign and across a raised pedestrian mall and struck the group near Fourth and Water Streets.² Heather Heyer, a paralegal from Charlottesville, died from blunt-force injury to the chest. More than 30 other people were injured.³

Who James Fields Is

Fields was living in Maumee, Ohio, at the time of the attack. His father was killed by a drunk driver before he was born, and he was raised by his mother, Samantha Bloom, who uses a wheelchair. They moved from Kentucky to Ohio when he was a teenager.⁴

His white supremacist sympathies were documented well before Charlottesville. A former high school teacher, Derek Weimer, told reporters that Fields was an open admirer of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. On a school trip to Europe, Fields reportedly visited the Dachau concentration camp and remarked, “This is where the magic happened.”⁵ A deleted Facebook account linked to him contained Nazi imagery popular with the “alt-right.”⁴

His mother called police at least nine times while they lived in Kentucky, reporting that he had hit her, locked her in a washroom, and stood behind her wheelchair holding a kitchen knife. He was diagnosed with bipolar disorder at age six and later with schizoid personality disorder, and he had been prescribed medication for his temper as a child.⁴⁶ He enlisted in the military but was released in December 2015 for failing to meet training standards.

On the day of the rally, Fields was photographed carrying a shield bearing the logo of Vanguard America, an openly fascist group. The organization denied he was a member and said the shields had been “freely handed out to anyone in attendance.”⁷

The State Murder Conviction

Fields’s state trial began in November 2018 in Charlottesville Circuit Court before Judge Richard Moore.⁸ His defense argued he acted out of fear after witnessing violent clashes earlier in the day, saying he believed his life was in danger. Attorney John Hill said Fields expressed remorse.⁹ Psychologist Daniel Murrie testified about Fields’s childhood diagnoses and “inexplicable volatile outbursts” as a child, and that Fields had stopped taking psychiatric medication at 18. Murrie also testified that Fields was not legally insane at the time of the killing.¹⁰

Prosecutors argued the attack was premeditated and pointed to social media posts Fields had made months earlier showing images of cars hitting people.⁹ On December 7, 2018, the jury convicted him of first-degree murder, five counts of aggravated malicious wounding, three counts of malicious wounding, and one count of leaving the scene of an accident.¹¹

In July 2019, Judge Moore imposed the jury’s recommended sentence: life in prison plus 419 years, along with $480,000 in fines.⁸ Fields appealed, arguing the trial court should have granted a change of venue and should not have admitted certain evidence, including memes he had sent a friend and a photograph of Hitler he had texted to his mother. In November 2021, the Virginia Court of Appeals unanimously denied the appeal and affirmed all convictions and sentences.¹²

The Federal Hate Crime Case

On June 27, 2018, a federal grand jury indicted Fields on 30 counts, including 29 violations of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act and one count of racially motivated violent interference with a federally protected activity.¹³

On March 27, 2019, Fields pleaded guilty to 29 counts. He admitted under oath that he had driven into the crowd with the intent to kill and that he targeted victims because of their “actual and perceived race, color, national origin, and religion.” He acknowledged that the attack was rooted in his promotion of white supremacist ideologies.¹⁴

On June 28, 2019, a federal judge in the Western District of Virginia sentenced him to life in prison. The state and federal life sentences run consecutively.¹⁵¹⁶ The Department of Justice characterized the attack as an act of domestic terrorism.

Civil Liability in Sines v. Kessler

Fields was also a defendant in Sines v. Kessler, a civil suit brought by nine Charlottesville residents against more than two dozen white supremacist leaders and organizations. The complaint alleged a “meticulously planned conspiracy” to commit violence at the rally and invoked the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, a Reconstruction-era law allowing citizens to sue for deprivation of civil rights, along with Virginia state law claims. Other named defendants included Kessler, Spencer, Christopher Cantwell, Matthew Heimbach, the League of the South, Identity Evropa, and Vanguard America.¹⁷

The trial took place in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia. On November 23, 2021, the jury found every defendant liable. It deadlocked on two federal conspiracy claims under the KKK Act but found all twelve individual defendants liable for civil conspiracy under Virginia state law. Five defendants were additionally found liable for racial, religious, or ethnic harassment under Virginia law.¹⁸

The initial verdict was approximately $26 million in damages. Fields alone was ordered to pay more than $12 million in punitive damages and over $1.5 million for plaintiffs’ physical and emotional injuries, more than half the total.¹⁸ The district court later reduced the punitive damages under a Virginia statutory cap. On July 1, 2024, the Fourth Circuit affirmed the conspiracy verdict and joint-and-several liability for compensatory damages, but reversed the district court’s application of the punitive cap, ruling it should be applied per plaintiff rather than per case. That change reinstated roughly $2.8 million in punitive damages.¹⁹

Where Fields Is Now

Fields is incarcerated at a federal prison in Springfield, Missouri.²⁰ He owes $81,600 in restitution and fines from his criminal case. As of early 2023, he had made virtually no payments; prosecutors noted that at his previous rate of $100 per year, it would take 816 years to pay it off.²¹

His prison record includes citations for being insolent to staff, making a threatening remark to a correctional officer, and possessing a homemade weapon classified as dangerous. Punishments have included phone and email suspensions, seizure of personal property, removal of his mattress during daylight hours, monetary fines, and a commissary limit of $25 per month.²¹²²

Fields continues to receive money from anonymous supporters. Prosecutors said in court filings that “various individuals” have transferred funds to his inmate trust account, and testimony in Sines v. Kessler indicated that at least one known white supremacist had contributed. In March 2023, a federal judge authorized the Justice Department to seize at least $650 from his account toward his unpaid restitution.²³

Heather Heyer

Heather Heyer was a 32-year-old paralegal at a Charlottesville law firm and a graduate of William Monroe High School in Ruckersville, Virginia. Her final Facebook post, “If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention,” was widely shared after her death.²⁴

More than 1,000 people attended her memorial service at the Paramount Theater in Charlottesville on August 16, 2017, including Governor Terry McAuliffe and Senator Tim Kaine. Her mother, Susan Bro, told mourners, “They tried to kill my child to shut her up. Well, guess what? You just magnified her.”²⁵ At Fields’s sentencing, Bro said, “I never wish for the death penalty and still don’t. I would like to see him change in time from a white supremacist to someone who helps bring others away from white supremacy.”²⁶

Bro established the Heather Heyer Foundation, which provided scholarships to students pursuing nonviolent social change. It operated until August 2022, when it closed and transferred its remaining assets to the African American Heritage Center at the Jefferson School in Charlottesville.²⁷ A section of the street where Heyer was killed was renamed Heather Heyer Way.²⁸

Her family also lobbied for federal legislation. The Khalid Jabara-Heather Heyer NO HATE Act was signed into law by President Biden on May 20, 2021, as part of the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act. It funds improved hate crime reporting through the National Incident-Based Reporting System, supports state-run hate crime hotlines, and allows judges to order community service or education for people convicted of federal hate crimes.²⁹

1
NPR. The Charlottesville Rally, 5 Years Later
2
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NBC News. James Alex Fields, Driver in Deadly Car Attack at Charlottesville Rally, Sentenced
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8
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17
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18
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CBS News. James Alex Fields Jr. Accused of Prison Misconduct
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CBS News. Justice Dept. Seize Funds, White Supremacist James Fields
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NPR. This Is Just the Beginning of Heather’s Legacy
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Heather Heyer Foundation. Heather Heyer Foundation
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