A former University of Virginia student was sentenced Friday to five life terms for the 2022 campus shooting that left three football players dead and two other students wounded, a crime that sent the Charlottesville campus into lockdown and shocked the university community.
Judge Cheryl Higgins imposed the maximum penalties on Christopher Darnell Jones Jr., who pleaded guilty last year to killing Devin Chandler, Lavel Davis Jr., and D’Sean Perry and to wounding Michael Hollins and Marlee Morgan. Prosecutors said Jones opened fire aboard a charter bus returning from a class trip to Washington, D.C.
The shooting prompted a 12-hour shelter-in-place order as students hid in dorm rooms, closets, and classrooms until Jones was arrested. Authorities later said Jones had no prior relationship with the victims and offered no clear motive.
Jones, now 24, will be eligible to seek parole at age 60, according to WTVR.
During sentencing, Judge Higgins said evidence showed Jones was not threatened or provoked and understood what he was doing. She noted he had told others before the attack that he expected to “go to hell or spend 100-plus years in jail.” After the shooting, he discarded his clothing and the gun and lied to officers he encountered minutes later.
University officials acknowledged that Jones had been flagged by the school’s threat-assessment team before the attack. Last year, UVA agreed to a $9 million settlement with victims and families after an outside investigation examined whether warning signs were missed.
Jones delivered a tearful 15-minute apology in court. Some family members walked out as he spoke.
“I didn’t know your sons. I didn’t know your boys. And I wish I did,” he said.
Hollins, one of the surviving victims and a member of the football team, said afterward that while no punishment could restore the lives lost, the sentence provided “a little bit of peace knowing that the man that committed those crimes won’t be hurting anyone else.”
