Ex-UVA football player who shot, killed fellow athletes receives 5 life sentences plus 23 years

A former University of Virginia football player who fatally shot three teammates when they were all on the team in 2022 has been sentenced to five life terms behind bars plus 23 years.

Christopher Darnell Jones Jr. was sentenced by an Albemarle County judge on Friday as a result of the Nov. 12, 2022, attack on a charter bus parking on campus, in which two other passengers were wounded, according to UVAToday.

The sentence followed five days of testimony from the families and friends of Jones' victims, Devin Chandler, D’Sean Perry and Lavel “Tyler” Davis, Jr. Two other former students were also wounded in the shooting, Mike Hollins and Marlee Morgan, who both recovered.

Hollins played a final season of football while earning a master’s degree after the shooting, while Morgan, a track-team manager at the time, joined the team a year after she was shot. Morgan graduated in May from the McIntire School of Commerce and is pursuing a graduate degree.

Jones pleaded guilty to murder and related charges last year.

Chandler, Perry, and Davis, who were all on the football team, were on a charter bus with two dozen other students returning from a field trip to see a play in Washington, D.C. Jones opened fire as the bus was parking near a garage on campus.

Prosecutors and Jones' defense team disagreed on his state of mind around the time of the shooting. While Jones' attorneys brought witnesses testifying to his declining mental health during that time, the prosecution argued that he had begun using and selling drugs near his home, was charged with a hit-and-run, and was caught carrying a concealed handgun.

“This was not a freak, psychotic episode,” prosecutor Richard Farley said of the shooting in his closing argument. “This was a criminal episode.”

According to police body camera footage from the night of the shooting, after Jones discarded the firearm and identifying clothing, he acted shock over the shooting when an officer stopped him to ask if he had heard gunshots or been on the bus. After Jones denied being involved, the officer released him.

Circuit Court Judge Cheryl Higgins said in sentencing Jones to the maximum for the shootings that she was partly influenced by how he fatally shot the three student-athletes while they were defenseless, saying no one on the bus presented a threat to him. She noted that Hollins was running from Jones when he shot Hollins in the back. 

UVA interim President Paul Mahoney said on Friday, “Today’s sentencing of Christopher Jones is another step in the long and difficult recovery from the terrible crimes he committed. The UVA community remains united in mourning the loss and celebrating the lives of Devin Chandler, Lavel Davis Jr. and D’Sean Perry, and in standing with those who were most closely affected by this tragedy.”