Post #1577886

So Jones actually defaulted on the trial. This means he was found guilty be default due to not complying with the court: 'repeated failure to abide by court rulings and to turn over certain evidence to the Sandy Hook families'. He basically refused to participate until the judge ran out of options. He did this on purpose - possibly because he knew he would lose, he wanted to avoid giving them some horrific evidence, because he could spin that as a 'set-up' to his audience, because he was advised to take it and turn it on appeal, etc Everything that happened in the 'trial', including the text messages etc, were in the damages portion. He had already been found essentially guilty of the allegations, and the jury's only task was determining how much he had to pay Bear in mind it was a civil and not a criminal trial - these defaults can't happen in a criminal trial, where the defendent has no say in how things move ahead