A former University of Virginia student who fatally shot three classmates and injured two others as they returned from a 2022 class trip on Friday was given five consecutive life sentences in prison, the maximum penalty.
Christopher Darnell Jones Jr. pleadedguilty last year to three counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of U-Va. student-athletes Devin Chandler, Lavel “Tyler” Davis Jr. and D’Sean Perry.
Jones addressed the victims’ families in court Friday for the first time before a judge handed down the sentence. “I didn’t know your sons,” he said, according to Cville Right Now. “I didn’t know your boys. And I wish I did.”
“I’m so sorry. I caused so much pain.”
Jones faced at least 23 years in prison under the plea but prosecutors had called for him to be sentenced to life.
On Nov. 13, 2022, Jones opened fireon a bus of students who had just returned from a day-long field trip to Washington to see the play “The Ballad of Emmett Till.”
Jones fled after the shooting, police said, and was arrested the next day about 80 miles away from campus in Henrico County. Prosecutors have said there was no indication Jones knew the victims before the trip.
In addition to the murder charges, Jones pleaded guilty to three counts of aggravated malicious wounding and five counts of using a firearm in the commission of a felony.
Michael Haggard, a lawyer for the Perry family as well as the families of injured students Mike Hollins and Marlee Morgan, said the sentencing was cathartic for the families, who had advocated for Jones to be sentenced to life in prison.
“There are no winners or losers in anything like this, it’s terrible. When you lose everything, what measure of justice is there?” Haggard said. “But they got to tell their story and that was very important to them. The system worked and hopefully they can continue to heal.”
Morgan, who was shot in her hip in the 2022 attack, was among the witnesses at this week’s sentencing hearing. She said Jones had talked to her and Davis about the play, WTVR-TV, a CBS affiliate in Richmond reported. Soon after, the local news station reported, Morgan said she heard the gunshots and heard Jones curse at Davis.
Morgan said she laid on another student while the classmates feared for their lives, the station reported. In the semester after the shooting, Morgan said her grades dropped and she didn’t want to be on campus.
Relatives of the slain victims also testified about the pain the last three years have brought. Perry’s mother said her son loved football and art. She said he had made a small figurine of himself, which she now carries with her.
Perry’s sister said the killing “shattered” their lives. “Accountability matters,” D’Shandra Perry said, according to Cville Right Now. “My brother’s life matters.”
The defense team asked its witnesses — including Jones’s uncle and cousin — about the mental health of Jones and abuse he faced as a child. Jones’s relatives said his parents physically and verbally abused him, and that by the summer of 2022, Jones was paranoid and schizophrenic, WTVR-TV reported. The commonwealth’s attorney also identified a text Jones sent that showed he had feared his co-workers were stalking him, and threatened violence to them, reported CVille Right Now.
The sentencing came a week after U-Va. held a memorial on campus in honor of the shooting victims. During the memorial, the university chapel chimes played “Amazing Grace” and a bell rang three times in honor of Chandler, Davis and Perry.
After the shooting, the university faced questions about its past interactions with Jones. He had been investigated by a threat assessment team at U-Va. after another student said Jones told them he had a gun. University officials also learned that Jones had been convicted in 2021 on a misdemeanor concealed weapons violation, but had not disclosed it. The university has said Jones refused to cooperate with officials seeking information.
A U-Va. spokesman saidthe university emailed Jones on Oct. 26, 2022, to say he faced the imminent possibility of disciplinary action, but officials did not immediately refer the case to a student-run judiciary committee.
At U-Va.’s request, the Virginia attorney general’s office commissioned an external review to examine events leading to the shooting.
The university released a pair of reports from that review in March, four months after Jones’ guilty pleas. The documents were heavily redacted — in one report, nearly 25 consecutive pages were blacked out — and the released versions did not offer any substantial new details about the shooting. The university said the redactions were necessary, in part, because of laws around student privacy and public safety.
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