CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — A judge here concluded Thursday that there is enough evidence to pursue a first-degree murder charge against the self-professed neo-Nazi accused of plowing his car into a crowd in August, killing one woman.
James Alex Fields Jr., 20, has been jailed in Charlottesville since his arrest during a rally of white supremacists on Aug. 12. Authorities say he rammed his car into another vehicle on purpose on a crowded street, killing counterprotester Heather Heyer 32, and injuring 35 other people.
The incident — captured on video and seen worldwide — occurred amid clashes involving hundreds of white supremacists and counterprotesters at a gathering billed by organizers as a “Unite the Right” rally, in the home town of the University of Virginia.
Heyer’s death, which shocked the national conscience, climaxed a violent, daylong outpouring of racist hate that showed how emboldened white supremacist groups have become in the United States. Organizers said the rally was meant to protest the city’s planned removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.
