Prosecutors are seeking to upgrade a second-degree murder charge against James Fields in the collision that killed one person and injured dozensThe man accused of driving into a crowd protesting a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville faces a new charge of first-degree murder after a court hearing Thursday in which prosecutors presented surveillance video and other evidence against him. The helicopter had been monitoring the violence, and prosecutors questioned Charlottesville police detective Steven Young about the video as it played. After that footage, a man in the crowd shouted an expletive and cried out, “Take me out.” He and others left the courtroom. White nationalists gathered in Charlottesville, Virginia, to protest against a plan to remove a statue of Robert E Lee, the Confederacy’s top general in the American civil war. Fields would have faced between five to 40 years in prison for a second-degree murder conviction.

Source: The Guardian December 15, 2017 13:52 UTC