Trial Of Charlottesville Driver Underway
LEMON: It was a deadly incident that shocked America. Now, more than a year after Heather Heyer was killed, when a car plowed into the crowd of counter-protesters at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, the trial of 21-year-old James Alex Fields is under way. He faces a possible life sentence if he is convicted of first-degree murder. Fields also faces eight more counts related to eight people who were injured. Sara Sidner has been following the trial and she joins me now. Sara, good evening to you. The prosecution is expected to rest the case tomorrow, but there's some new evidence they're trying to bring into court?</s>SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, we have all just seen publicly some new evidence that could be potentially damaging for James Fields' defense because it could speak to his state of mind. What we are now seeing from prosecutors who are trying to get the judge to allow this to come into the case are text messages between James Fields and his mother long before police say he rammed his car into dozens of protesters here in Charlottesville, Virginia. I'm going to read out the text messages that the prosecutor is trying to get into this case. Here's what the first text says. It says, "Fields tells his mom, I got the weekend off, so I'll be able to go to the rally." His mother responds like any mother would, telling him to be careful. Fields then sends this text back that reads, "we're not the one who need to be careful" and he adds an image of Adolf Hitler to that message. That is very damaging evidence because it could speak to his motive. It could talk a little bit about the fact that police have already accused him of being a Nazi sympathizer. You have a picture of Adolf Hitler there and you also have his aggression coming out in those text messages. It sounds like pre- planning, if you will, as well. Then you have this. Three months before any of this happened. There was a meme that James Fields put out on Instagram. And that the judge says can come in to this case. And I'll take -- look at this meme. Basically you see that picture there.</s>LEMON: Wow.</s>SIDNER: It's someone running into a bunch of people. And it says, "you have the right to protest, but I'm late for work." So it shows a certain kind of callousness. Now, remember, that is several months before he has been accused of running his car into all these people, killing Heather Heyer. But I do want to mention to you what was really striking, I think, in court today. We heard from some of the victims, some of the victims who are still recovering after being hit by the car here in Charlottesville. We heard from a victim named Jeanne Peterson. She said that she was there, she was near Heather Heyer, she saw Heather Heyer being hit, fly up into the air. She looked into her eyes and said, "I think that's what the eyes of a dead person looks like." And she is still in a wheelchair, Don. [23:44:58} She has such damage to her leg that she is still going through surgery. She has a sixth surgery that she is currently awaiting. Her life will never be the same. We also heard from Thomas Baker, who was a conservation biologist. He talked about the fact that he really didn't want to take part in any of the crazy machinations that happened here in the rallies. None of the violence. He actually just kind of want to come down and see, but he also wanted to be present. He was new to the area, and he did not like the idea of the "unite the right" rally coming here and spewing hate. So he wanted to come out and observe and also just be present. And he says he got a part of this group that was cheerful and happy. They were sort of celebratory. They were singing and chanting in the streets. They were not being violent. When all of a sudden he heard tires screeching. He too got hit by the car. He says he will never be the same. He used to be an athlete. He says it was part of his identity and that has been stripped away. He now cannot run. He says it hurts sometimes just to sit or stand. So these are just some of the stories of the victims. But Heather Heyer's mother, Susan Breaux (ph), has been here every single day listening to the details of the worst day of her life. We all listened as a paramedic who got to Heather Heyer and the first person that tried to save her life talked about Heather Heyer being alive when he first got to her and then her skin color changing. He talked about all of her multiple injuries to her chest. Her ribs were broken. Her lungs were bruised. Her leg was broken, and one of her arteries was severed in half. She ended up taking so much trauma that her body just couldn't handle it, Don.</s>LEMON: Couldn't handle it. I've got to ask you, because it's obvious. I wonder what the defense is going to say, because this alleged murder is caught on camera. I mean, you can see the video here, and it's very graphic. But we saw this happening almost in real time.</s>SIDNER: And not just in one place, but there was someone who spoke, a witness who spoke who had Facebook lived it. There were other videos of this. There's some surveillance video as well. So there were multiple different places where people had video of either the beginning of the incident or the whole thing. So there is a lot of video out there due to social media in part. But the defense appears to be trying to say that this was done in self- defense. Now, we haven't heard the defense's case yet. We are expecting the prosecution to rest its case before lunch tomorrow. This case going very quickly, according to the judge. But we are listening to the cross-examination by the defense. And much of what they are trying to bring in is the fact that there were not a lot of police around in the area, that the police presence was very small, that there was nothing blocking the streets, that there was no protection, if you will, around James Fields, and so that he felt scared potentially in this particular area. But everyone who testified today said they didn't really see anybody around him before they heard the screeching of tires and then the thumps. That was him hitting people. Don?</s>LEMON: Sara Sidner, I appreciate your reporting. Thank you so much. The nation is honoring the 41st president tonight. We're going to talk to someone who worked closely with President George H.W. Bush and with his son, President George W. Bush.