CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — A man who has voiced racist and pro-Nazi views faces the possibility of life in prison in the death of a woman during clashes in Charlottesville, Va., in August. Prosecutors on Thursday increased the top charge against him, and a judge said the case could proceed.

State District Court Judge Robert H. Downer Jr. certified a first-degree murder charge and an array of lesser felony charges against James A. Fields Jr., who is accused of driving his car into a group of counterprotesters, killing Heather Heyer, 32, and injuring 35 others.

Ms. Heyer’s parents and many of the surviving victims sat in the courtroom, as a police detective, Steven Young, described finding “blood and flesh on the front of the vehicle” when he approached Mr. Fields’s 2010 Dodge Challenger, about a mile from the episode.