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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — An Ohio man plans to appeal his convictions for driving his car into a crowd of counterprotestors during a 2017 white nationalist rally in Virginia.
The Daily Progress, citing online court records, reports that a lawyer for James Alex Fields Jr. filed a notice of appeal Monday.
In December 2018, Fields was convicted of first-degree murder in the killing of anti-racism activist Heather Heyer and multiple charges for injuries caused to others in the car attack. He was sentenced to life in prison plus 419 years.
Fields, of Maumee, Ohio, already is serving multiple life sentences after accepting a plea agreement in a separate federal hate crimes case. The state sentence is to run consecutively to his federal sentence.
The "Unite the Right" rally on Aug. 12, 2017, drew hundreds of white nationalists to Charlottesville to protest the planned removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.
Fields, an avowed white supremacist, admitted deliberately driving his car into counterprotesters who showed up to demonstrate against the white nationalists.
The case stirred racial tensions around the country.
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