As the jury in the Alex Jones defamation trial gathered in a conference room in a Texas courthouse on Aug. 5 to decide how much the U.S. conspiracy theorist owed to two parents of a murdered Sandy Hook first-grader, sums at first ranged from $500,000 to $200 million, a juror told Reuters.

"We saw those numbers on the board and someone said, 'Well, I guess we're never leaving this room,'" said Sharon, a juror who asked that her last name be withheld because she fears harassment by Jones' followers......

Mark Bankston, an attorney for the parents, told Reuters in an email on Sunday that "in a case with no concrete losses or economic damages, the fact that the jury was prepared to award a multimillion verdict speaks volumes.".....

Free Speech Systems filed for bankruptcy in Texas midway through the trial. A group of Sandy Hook parents intervened in the case and asked a judge to freeze the company's assets to prevent Jones from funneling cash to different entities.

The verdict has symbolic value, but it does not change the underlying societal problems that make Jones' conspiratorial thinking appealing to so many, she said.