Former Virginia student Christopher Darnell Jones Jr. pleads guilty to fatally shooting three football stars

Christopher Darnell Jones Jr., a former University of Virginia student, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder this week in the slayings of three UVA football players.

Jones’ plea comes after the 2022 killings of Lavel Davis Jr., D’Sean Perry and Devin Chandler on campus. All three young men played for the UVA Cavaliers football team. A fourth team member, Mike Hollins, and another student, Marlee Morgan, suffered injuries.

Jones’ tenure on the football team overlapped with the players he shot, according to information in the draft copy of the prosecutor’s summary, but there is no indication that Jones and the players had a relationship.

Jones faced three counts of first-degree murder, two counts of aggravated malicious wounding and five counts of use of a firearm in the commission of a felony. A sentencing hearing is set for February 4 and is expected to last four days.

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Christopher Darnell Jones Jr., a former University of Virginia student, pleaded guilty this week to the shooting deaths of three members of the university’s football team. (AP Newsroom/IMAGN)

While driving back to campus from a school trip on a charter bus in the hours before the shooting, Jones texted an adult mentor and said, “tonight I’m going to hell or jail. I’m sorry,” according to a summary . the prosecution read it in court on Wednesday. The Associated Press obtained a draft copy of the summary.

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Jones was scheduled to stand trial in January on charges including aggravated murder, which carries a mandatory sentence of life without parole in Virginia. The first-degree murder charges, to which he pleaded guilty in a plea deal with prosecutors, carry a sentence of 20 years to life.

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, DC

University of Virginia football players Devin Chandler, Lavel Davis Jr. and DSean Perry. (University of Virginia athletics)

The shooting broke out near a parking garage and led to a 12-hour lockdown of the Charlottesville campus until the suspect was captured. Many at the school of about 23,000 students huddled inside closets and darkened dormitories, while others barricaded the doors to the university’s stately academic buildings.

During the vandalism, Jones “methodically checked every seat until he reached the back of the bus” to shoot some of his victims, the summary states.

Authorities have not yet released details about the motive in the shooting of Jones.

University of Virginia students participate in a vigil in response to shootings on the Charlottesville campus, November 14, 2022. (Mike Kropf/The Daily Progress via AP)

University President Jim Ryan said Jones’ plea represents “another step in a long and painful journey for the victims’ families and for our community.”

“We continue to grieve the loss of three beloved members of our community and the injuries suffered by others on the bus,” Ryan’s statement added.

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Within days of the shooting, university leaders asked for an external review to examine the school’s security policies and procedures, its response to the violence and its previous efforts to assess the potential threat posed by the accused student. School officials acknowledged that Jones was previously on the radar of the university’s threat assessment team.

In June, Kimberly Wald, an attorney who represented 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 erratic behavior.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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