Ex-Virginia student given astonishing sentence after pleading guilty to murdering three college football stars

The man responsible for the murder of three University of Virginia football players in November of 2022 has received his sentence.

Christopher Darnell Jones Jr. has pled guilty to the shooting and killing of UVA stars Devin Chandler, Lavel Davis Jr. and De'Sean Perry after they returned on a charter bus from a class field trip to Washington, DC.

On Friday, Judge Cheryl Higgins sentenced Jones to the maximum allowable penalty of five life sentences, plus 23 years in prison for the murders of the three players as well as the wounding of running back Mike Hollins and track athlete Marlee Morgan.

Jones pled guilty last year to three counts of first-degree murder, two counts of aggravated malicious wounding and five counts of use of a firearm in commission of a felony.

Both Hollins and Morgan testified during the sentencing hearing - as did members of the players' families, Hollins' mother, the professor who organized the class trip and other people on the bus.

After closing arguments, Jones offered an apology to the families, saying, 'I'm so sorry. I caused so much pain.'

Many of Jones' family members testified on his behalf - as did friends and a high school mentor. Cville Right Now reports that family members attested to Jones having an abusive childhood and mental illness.

Following sentencing, Hollins spoke with reporters outside the courthouse: 'Knowing that he has been given a time and justice has been served for the most part even though that no amount of time on this earth in jail will get those lives back, just a little bit of peace knowing the man that committed those crimes won't be hurting anyone else.'

At Jones' plea hearing, prosecutors read a summary in court of what they allege happened the day of the shooting, including chilling details not publicly released before. 

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, D.C.

While riding on the bus in the hours before the shooting, Jones texted an adult mentor he had known for several years and stated, 'tonight I'm either going to hell or jail. I'm sorry,' according to the summary. The Associated Press obtained a draft copy of the summary.

A witness previously told police that Jones had targeted specific victims.

The summary read by prosecutors said one student told authorities that on the bus ride back to campus, he heard Jones quietly talking to himself, saying, among other things, 'I'm sorry if I offended you. I didn't mean to offend you,' 'I've been through so much in my life,' and 'I don't have any weapons.'

Jones turned irritable after the football players arrived at the start of the trip, prosecutors said. Jones also sat alone at the play and on the ride home.

A woman who had previously rejected Jones romantically had swapped phone numbers with Chandler, one of the men who was later killed, according to prosecutors.

Jones told his adult mentor via text before the shooting to, 'Just tell my story. I was a good guy I never meant or initiated any harm to anyone,' prosecutors also stated.

In his final message, Jones typed, 'they not getting off this bus.'

Jones also texted several family members, including his mother, to say he loved them, according to prosecutors. He also told his younger brother that something might happen, adding a siren emoji.

During the rampage, Jones 'methodically checked each seat until he reached the back of the bus' to shoot some of his victims, the summary said.

Disturbingly, Jones asked one of the football players about a video game immediately before he started shooting, a family friend of one of the only two surviving victims told Sports Illustrated in 2022.

'They had been on a field trip to see a play [in Washington DC], and when they came home on a bus, they pulled into the parking garage,' said Gordon McKernan, a longtime friend of running back Mike Hollins' family.

'The suspect ... he was asking one of the football players about a video game,' McKernan said witnesses told the family. 'The guy answered, and at that moment, he pulled a gun and started shooting.

'The belief from those on board was that he was targeting football players.'

The shooting erupted near a parking garage and prompted a 12-hour lockdown of the Charlottesville campus until the suspect was captured. 

Many at the school of some 23,000 students huddled inside closets and darkened dorm rooms, while others barricaded the doors of the university's stately academic buildings.