The young neo-Nazi accused of using his car as a deadly weapon during the violent Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville argued with his mother in a call from jail about how sorry he ought to be for allegedly causing the death of Heather Heyer, a counterprotester.
Prosecutors played the calls on Tuesday, day four of James Alex Fields Jr.’s trial, BuzzFeed News reported, before resting their case. Fields, 21, is facing state murder charges plus charges of malicious wounding, and federal hate crime charges.
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During a December 2017 call, Fields told his mother, Samantha Bloom, that Heyer’s mother, Susan Bro, who’s been a prominent community activist since the August 2017 violence, was “one of those anti-white communists.”
“She lost her daughter,” Fields’ mother replied, according to BuzzFeed.
“It doesn’t fucking matter,” Fields said. “She’s a communist.”
“Stop talking like that,” Bloom said.
“It isn’t up for questioning,” Fields said. “She’s the enemy, Mother.”
Prosecutors have sought to demonstrate that Fields’ actions were premeditated, and that he had an ideological motive, while defense attorneys have tried to argue that he acted in self-defense, according to reporters inside the Charlottesville, Virginia, courtroom.
Details of Fields’ interactions with law enforcement and his mother have offered a muddled impression of whether he felt remorse for his actions. For example, after he plowed his car into a crowd of protesters at an intersection in downtown Charlottesville during the August 12 rally, he rapidly reversed up the hill, hitting bodies on the way, and sped off.
Read: Charlottesville on lockdown: “This city has been changed forever”
When an officer apprehended Fields about a mile away, according to body camera footage played by defense attorneys Tuesday, he said he was sorry. “I didn’t want to hurt people,” Fields told the officer, “I thought they were attacking me.”
According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Fields also sobbed and hyperventilated when he learned during an interrogation that he’d killed someone and hurt others.
But in another call to his mother placed earlier this year, Fields called the group of protesters at the intersection “a violent group of terrorists,” adding that he thought some people in the crowd were carrying ISIS flags.
Fields, who is from Maumee, Ohio, was photographed earlier in the day during Unite the Right marching alongside white supremacists and far-right agitators, holding a shield emblazoned with the logo of a neo-Nazi group.
Cover: The silver Dodge Charger allegedly driven by James Alex Fields Jr. passes near the Market Street Parking Garage moments after driving into a crowd of counter-protesters on Water Street on August 12, 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia. Heather Heyer, 32 years old, was killed and 19 others injured when they were struck by Fields’ car. (Photo by Matthew Hatcher/Getty Images)
