Christopher Darnell Jones got five life sentences plus 23 years for the Nov. 13, 2022, shootings of five UVA student-athletes, three of whom – Devin Chandler, Lavel Davis Jr. and D’Sean Perry – were “executed,” in the words of Richard Farley, the Albemarle County Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney.
“These guys didn’t have a chance,” said Farley on Friday, putting the horrific coda on what the prosecutor called “the worst crime in Albemarle history.”
Jones had pleaded guilty to the shootings in November 2024, avoiding a trial, which made the sentencing hearing the de facto public airing of the case against him.
Jones, 26, himself a UVA student at the time of the shootings three years ago, told the court before the sentence was handed down that he agreed that he didn’t “deserve anything less than life,” and apologized to his “friends and loved ones.”
“I’m sorry because you believed in me, and I let you down,” said Jones, like the rest of us, a complicated person – one bright enough to earn admission to the University of Virginia after overcoming a childhood of abuse and trauma, with demons either brought on or exacerbated by what he’d endured that manifested themselves into violent outbursts, attempts to self-medicate with illegal drugs, and ultimately, the unthinkable, on the night of Nov. 13, 2022, in the final minutes of a class field trip to Washington, D.C.
ICYMI
- Thursday marks three years since the murders of three UVA Football players
- The other victim from the 2022 UVA shootings: The shooter, Chris Jones
As the bus was returning to Grounds, Jones shot and killed Chandler, Davis and Perry, three members of the UVA Football program, and wounded Mike Hollins, a fourth football player, and Marlee Morgan, a manager on the track team who would later become a member of the team, as a sprinter, after recovering from her injuries.
The defense focused on trying to paint Jones’ actions on the night of the shootings in the context of his lifetime of abuse at the hands of his parents, who he eventually fled to live with his grandmother as he finished high school, and undiagnosed and untreated mental illness.
The prosecution suggested that Jones was motivated not by rational or irrational fears or paranoia, but envy.
Jones, very briefly, had made an attempt to become a member of the UVA Football program, as a first-year student, in the summer of 2018, but gave up the effort when it became clear he wasn’t going to make the team.
The presence of the football players on the 2022 field trip bothered Jones, who got upset when two female friends from the class decided to sit with the football players on the bus trip back to Charlottesville.
As his anger at the situation rose, Jones texted a mentor that “they not getting off this bus,” and “tonight I’m either going to hell or jail,” suggesting clear premeditation.
“His psychological function was seriously compromised, but these distortions did not interfere with his ability to complete actions. He acted knowing that what was contemplated would lead to dire consequences,” Judge Cheryl Higgins said, as she explained her decision in her sentencing ruling.
The defense had asked for a 40-year sentence for Jones.
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