“He must have the world’s worst legal team...”
No legal team at all, just a public defender.
I didn’t follow the case, but from what little I know, he could have just claimed self-defense, that it was an accident as he fled the violent crowd. Even a public defender who had his client’s interests at heart, which is that public defender’s job, should have defended that way, rather than have him plead guilty to this. If James Fields wasn’t a neo-nazi before this, he is going to become one in prison. He’ll also probably appeal after sitting in the cooler for a couple of years, win, and potentially sue the system that put him there.