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James Alex Fields Jr., a 21-year-old from Maumee, Ohio, was , a counterprotester at the 鈥淯nite the Right鈥� rally in August 2017 earlier this year. to subsequent federal charges allowed him to avoid a possible death sentence. Fields entered the plea in federal court in Charlottesville.

Prosecutors dropped a 30th charge, which would have carried a possible death sentence.

Sentencing is set for July 3 in U.S. District Court in Charlottesville.

A federal grand jury charged Fields in June 2018 with one count of a hate crime act resulting in the death of Heyer; 28 counts of hate crime acts causing bodily injury and involving an attempt to kill; and one count of racially motivated violent interference with a federally protected activity.

U.S. Attorney General William Barr聽approved that March 22.

In December, a Charlottesville state jury convicted Fields of first-degree murder, eight counts of malicious wounding and one count of hit and run. They recommended a sentence of life plus 419 years in prison. Fields is scheduled for sentencing July 15 on that conviction in Charlottesville Circuit Court. Fields and many others聽who participated in a torch-lit rally the night before the fatal crash remain defendants in a federal lawsuit.

锘緼ccording to testimony from Fields鈥� previous trial, on Aug. 11, 2017, Fields drove 540 miles from Maumee, Ohio, to Charlottesville. The next day, dressed in a white shirt and khaki pants, Fields met up with neo-Nazi hate group Vanguard America, whose members wore similar outfits, at one of the largest gatherings of neo-Nazis, white supremacists and 鈥渁lt-right鈥� adherents聽in decades. Fields held a shield emblazoned with Vanguard America鈥檚 logo as he rallied with the group near a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.

鈥淯nite the Right,鈥�聽which was to feature alt-right and white nationalist speakers, never got off the ground.

Beset by violent confrontations between alt-right adherents and counterprotesters, including fights and people throwing water bottles and other items at each other, the rally was declared an 鈥渦nlawful assembly鈥� by Virginia State Police shortly before it was scheduled to begin at noon.

In a video shown at Fields鈥� state trial, he can be seen mouthing words as the Vanguard America group marched out of downtown chanting, 鈥淛ews will not replace us!鈥� and 鈥淵ou will not replace us!鈥�

After the rally deteriorated into a series of violent confrontations and chaos, Fields gave three people rides back to their cars and then approached Fourth Street on the downtown pedestrian shopping mall. As he sat in a 2010 Dodge Challenger at one of the two automotive crossings on the pedestrian mall, Fields found himself staring at several hundred people, many of whom had been counterprotesters earlier in the day. Fields drove across the pedestrian mall, then stopped and looked at the crowd.

Fields backed his car across the pedestrian mall, then sat and idled for a moment. A security camera at the Red Pump Kitchen, a restaurant on the north side of the pedestrian mall, captured the car momentarily still with nothing behind it.

A video shows Fields plowed his car into the crowd at 1:42 p.m., hitting people, tossing several into the air and killing Heyer, a paralegal. After striking two other vehicles that had stopped for the gathering, Fields backed up and drove through town toward Interstate 64 in a car with a crumpled front end and busted windshield. Police stopped Fields in a neighborhood less than two miles from where he struck the crowd.

When Fields struck the counterprotesters, he also inflicted lifelong physical and emotional injuries on at least 10 people.

鈥淚 remember thinking, 鈥極K, I鈥檓 being hit by a car. This is happening,鈥欌�� counterprotester Wednesday Bowie testified during Fields鈥� state trial.

Bowie still walks with an uneven gait. Jeanne 鈥淪tar鈥� Peterson has had five surgeries on a shattered leg and uses a wheelchair and cane. Others are recovering from surgeries and emotional scars.

The intersection near where Heyer was killed is now a makeshift memorial to her with chalk-written messages and flowers. Heyer鈥檚 mother, Susan Bro, has spoken publicly about her daughter and worked on anti-racism campaigns and efforts. Five other people were sentenced to state prison for taking part in the violence after 鈥淯nite the Right.鈥�

Since the 鈥淯nite the Right鈥� rally, the event鈥檚 organizer, Jason Kessler, is rarely seen in Charlottesville, his hometown, and he has tried publicly to distance himself from the alt-right.

Photo credit Eze Amos/AP Images