UVA shooter was able to legally buy guns while serving three suspended sentences

Accused triple-murderer Chris Jones was somehow able to legally buy two guns from a Colonial Heights dealer earlier this year as he was serving three active 12-month suspended sentences, including one for possessing a concealed weapon.

The owner of Dance’s Sporting Goods, Marlon Dance, issued a statement to the Times-Dispatch Wednesday confirming that Jones, 22, had purchased a Ruger AR-556 rifle in February, and a Glock 9mm pistol in July.

“There was nothing noteworthy about these purchases,” Dance said in the statement.

Dance also revealed that Jones, who has been charged with second-degree murder in the shooting deaths of UVA Football student-athletes Devin Chandler, Lavel Davis Jr. and D’Sean Perry, had twice attempted unsuccessfully to purchase firearms in 2018 and 2021.

In both cases, Dance said, Jones failed the background check, and the attempts by Jones to purchase the firearms were forwarded to the Virginia State Police for further action.

“We will continue to assist law enforcement as they attempt to make sense of this terrible tragedy, and we pray for the victims of this tragedy,” Dance said.

The purchases that apparently did pass the background check in 2022 came after Jones had been convicted in Chesterfield County in 2021 on a concealed weapons charge that stemmed from a traffic stop.

According to Chesterfield Police, Jones was stopped on Feb. 22, 2021, because the registration on the vehicle he was driving did not come back on file.

During the stop, the investigating officer found a gun that he didn’t have a permit for, and also discovered that there were outstanding warrants for Jones for failing to stop for an accident resulting in more than $1,000 in damages and reckless driving dating to an Aug. 9, 2020 incident in Petersburg.

The concealed weapons charge made its way through the court system first. After missing a court date in April 2021, Jones pleaded guilty on June 10, 2021, and received a 12-month suspended sentence.

He later pleaded no contest to the reckless driving and failing to stop charges on Oct. 28, 2021, and was given separate 12-month suspended sentences on those convictions.