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Former University of Virginia (UVA) student Christopher Darnell Jones Jr., who fatally shot three of the school’s football players in 2022, was sentenced Friday to a maximum of five life sentences, plus 23 years on the gun charge.
Jones reportedly apologized to the victims’ family at the courthouse, saying, “I’m sorry,” according to Charlottesville-based Cville Right Now. “I caused so much pain.”
Last year, Jones pleaded guilty to the murders of D’Sean Perry, Lavel Davis Jr. and Devin Chandler, two counts of aggravated wounding with intent and five counts of use of a firearm in the commission of a felony. A fourth team member, Mike Hollins, and another student, Marlee Morgan, were injured.
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A booking photo released by the Henrico County Sheriff’s Office shows Christopher Darnell Jones Jr., who was arrested Nov. 14, 2022, in the fatal shootings of three football players at the University of Virginia. (Henrico County Sheriff’s Office via AP, file)
Jones previously joined the UVA football team as a true freshman in 2018, but never appeared in a game. After leaving the team, he was still enrolled at the university as a student.
Then came the day he committed the murders.
While returning to campus from a school trip on a charter bus in the hours before the shooting, Jones texted an adult mentor, saying, “Tonight I’m either going to hell or jail. I’m sorry,” according to a summary prosecutors read in court Wednesday. The Associated Press obtained a draft of the summary.
UVA TO PAY $9 MILLION TO FAMILIES OF VICTIMS OF 2022 SHOOTING THAT KILLED 3 FOOTBALL PLAYERS AND INJURED 2 OTHERS
Authorities said Jones opened fire aboard a charter bus as he and other students returned to campus after seeing a play and dining together in Washington, DC.
The shooting broke out near a parking lot and caused the Charlottesville campus to go into lockdown for 12 hours until the suspect was captured. Many students at the school, which has some 23,000 students, huddled in dark closets and dormitories, while others barricaded the doors to the university’s majestic academic buildings.
During the rampage, Jones “methodically checked each seat until he reached the back of the bus” to shoot some of his victims, the summary states.
Days after the shooting, university leaders requested outside expertise to investigate the school’s security policies and procedures, its response to the violence and its previous efforts to assess the potential threat posed by the charged student. School officials acknowledged that Jones was previously on the radar of the university’s threat assessment team.
In June 2024, an attorney representing some of the victims and their families announced that the university had agreed to pay $9 million in settlement.
Wald said the university should have kicked Jones off campus before the attack because he displayed multiple red flags due to erratic and unstable behavior.
