<p class="title">An American neo-Nazi who killed an activist when he rammed his car into a group of counter-protesters during a white supremacist rally was ordered jailed for life without possibility of parole on Friday.</p>.<p class="bodytext">James Alex Fields Jr, 22, had pleaded guilty to 29 federal hate crimes charges in March in a deal with prosecutors that eliminated the possibility of a death sentence.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The charges were linked to the 29 people wounded when he drove his car through a crowd in Charlottesville, Virginia on August 12, 2017, when he killed 32-year-old paralegal Heather Heyer.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"As a result of this act of domestic terrorism that was charged as 29 hate crimes, a United States district judge this afternoon determined that Mr Fields deserved to spend the rest of his life in federal prison and imposed that sentence," said US Attorney Thomas Cullen.</p>.<p class="bodytext">According to the local CBS6 news channel, Judge Michael Urbanski said Fields was "a profoundly disturbed young man" with a history of violence and releasing him back into society would be "too great a risk to take."</p>.<p class="bodytext">Addressing the court, Fields took the opportunity to apologize for his actions, the channel added.</p>.<p class="bodytext">He will be sentenced for his first-degree murder conviction in a state court in July.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Heyer was among the activists who had gathered in Charlottesville to protest a group of white supremacists who came to the university town to protest against the removal of a Confederate statue.</p>.<p class="bodytext">President Donald Trump drew broad criticism in the aftermath of the mayhem when he spoke of "blame on both sides," appearing to establish a moral equivalence between the white supremacists and those who opposed them.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The incident turned Charlottesville into a symbol of the growing audacity of the far right under Trump.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Fields had driven overnight from his hometown of Maumee, Ohio, to support the "Unite the Right" rally to protest the removal of a statue of Robert E Lee, the top general of the pro-slavery Confederacy during the 1861-1865 American Civil War.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Dressed in a white polo shirt and khaki pants, the uniform of the white supremacists, he took part in racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic chants, according to footage played in the courtroom in his murder trial.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The prosecution played videos that showed Fields stop his car and reverse up a hill before commencing his deadly assault on counter-protesters who were singing and celebrating after city officials had ordered the far-right demonstrators to leave.</p>.<p class="bodytext">In order to build their case of a pre-meditated attack, prosecutors presented a text Fields sent to his mother before departing for the rally after she had asked him to be careful.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"We're not the one (sic) who need to be careful," he replied, alongside a photo of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, whom he has long admired.</p>.<p class="bodytext">They also showed the jury two Instagram posts Fields uploaded in May last year that depicted a car ramming into a group of protesters, arguing that he ultimately chose to live out that fantasy when the opportunity arose three months later.</p>
<p class="title">An American neo-Nazi who killed an activist when he rammed his car into a group of counter-protesters during a white supremacist rally was ordered jailed for life without possibility of parole on Friday.</p>.<p class="bodytext">James Alex Fields Jr, 22, had pleaded guilty to 29 federal hate crimes charges in March in a deal with prosecutors that eliminated the possibility of a death sentence.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The charges were linked to the 29 people wounded when he drove his car through a crowd in Charlottesville, Virginia on August 12, 2017, when he killed 32-year-old paralegal Heather Heyer.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"As a result of this act of domestic terrorism that was charged as 29 hate crimes, a United States district judge this afternoon determined that Mr Fields deserved to spend the rest of his life in federal prison and imposed that sentence," said US Attorney Thomas Cullen.</p>.<p class="bodytext">According to the local CBS6 news channel, Judge Michael Urbanski said Fields was "a profoundly disturbed young man" with a history of violence and releasing him back into society would be "too great a risk to take."</p>.<p class="bodytext">Addressing the court, Fields took the opportunity to apologize for his actions, the channel added.</p>.<p class="bodytext">He will be sentenced for his first-degree murder conviction in a state court in July.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Heyer was among the activists who had gathered in Charlottesville to protest a group of white supremacists who came to the university town to protest against the removal of a Confederate statue.</p>.<p class="bodytext">President Donald Trump drew broad criticism in the aftermath of the mayhem when he spoke of "blame on both sides," appearing to establish a moral equivalence between the white supremacists and those who opposed them.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The incident turned Charlottesville into a symbol of the growing audacity of the far right under Trump.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Fields had driven overnight from his hometown of Maumee, Ohio, to support the "Unite the Right" rally to protest the removal of a statue of Robert E Lee, the top general of the pro-slavery Confederacy during the 1861-1865 American Civil War.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Dressed in a white polo shirt and khaki pants, the uniform of the white supremacists, he took part in racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic chants, according to footage played in the courtroom in his murder trial.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The prosecution played videos that showed Fields stop his car and reverse up a hill before commencing his deadly assault on counter-protesters who were singing and celebrating after city officials had ordered the far-right demonstrators to leave.</p>.<p class="bodytext">In order to build their case of a pre-meditated attack, prosecutors presented a text Fields sent to his mother before departing for the rally after she had asked him to be careful.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"We're not the one (sic) who need to be careful," he replied, alongside a photo of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, whom he has long admired.</p>.<p class="bodytext">They also showed the jury two Instagram posts Fields uploaded in May last year that depicted a car ramming into a group of protesters, arguing that he ultimately chose to live out that fantasy when the opportunity arose three months later.</p>