I lived in Charlottesville at the time that happened and I recall a local paper reporting months later that the prosecution framed him as a terrorist because he liked a meme on Instagram about the Nice attack talking about the "truck of peace". The lawyer then framed the liking of this meme to suggest that his actions were premeditated, and his lawyer just let this happen. Liking a fucking meme on social media is now enough to equate to a motive for a terror attack.