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Former University of Virginia (UVA) student Christopher Darnell Jones Jr., who killed three of the school’s football players with a gun in 2022, was sentenced to the maximum of five life sentences, plus 23 years on gun charges, Friday.
Jones reportedly apologized to the victims' family in the courthouse, saying, "I'm sorry," according to Charlottesville-based outlet Cville Right Now. "I caused so much pain."
Last year, Jones pleaded guilty to the murder of D'Sean Perry, Lavel Davis Jr. and Devin Chandler, two counts of aggravated malicious wounding 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, suffered injuries.
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Jones previously joined the UVA football team as a walk-on true freshman in 2018, but never played 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 riding back to campus from a school trip on a charter bus in the hours before the shooting, Jones texted an adult mentor, stating, "Tonight I’m either going to hell or jail. I’m sorry," according to a summary that prosecutors read in court on Wednesday. The Associated Press obtained a draft copy of the summary.
Authorities said Jones opened fire aboard a charter bus as he and other students arrived back on campus after seeing a play and having dinner together in Washington, D.C.
The shooting erupted near a parking garage and prompted a 12-hour lockdown of the Charlottesville campus until the suspect was captured. Many at the school of some 23,000 students huddled inside closets and darkened dorm rooms, while others barricaded the doors of the university’s stately 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 said.
Within days of the shooting, university leaders asked for an outside review to investigate the school’s safety policies and procedures, its response to the violence and its prior efforts to assess the potential threat of the student charged. School officials acknowledged Jones previously was on the radar of the university’s threat-assessment team.
In June 2024, a lawyer representing some of the victims and their families, announced that the university agreed to pay $9 million in a settlement.
Wald said the university should have removed Jones from campus before the attack because he displayed multiple red flags through erratic and unstable behavior.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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