Man Pleads Guilty to Murder in 2022 Shooting That Killed 3 UVA Football Players

Christopher Darnell Jones Jr. has pled guilty to three counts of first-degree murder, two counts of aggravated malicious wounding and five firearms counts following a Nov. 2022 tragedy in which University of Virginia football players Lavel Davis Jr., D'Sean Perry and Devin Chandler were shot and killed on a bus returning from a class trip.

Jones also shot and injured Cavaliers football player Mike Hollins. Another UVA student was injured in the gunfire.

Per Ben Finley and Denise Lavoie of the Associated Press, the former UVA student will be sentenced following a four-day hearing beginning on Feb. 4 in Albemarle County Circuit Court.

His plea deal may result in five life sentences, per Jason Armesto of The Daily Progress.

Jones arrived in Charlottesville in 2018 after joining the football team but never played in a game. Per Armesto, Jones was cut due to a preexisting ankle injury.

He remained a UVA student. On Nov. 13, 2022, Jones joined a class trip to Washington, D.C. that included the football players. Armesto provided more information, which reads in part:

"According to a statement of facts laid out by the prosecution, his time on the team did not overlap with any of the victims, and the commonwealth found no indication that Jones and the victims knew each other prior to the day of the shooting.

"The trip to D.C. was organized by an African American theater class, of which the five victims were current or former members. A bus was chartered to take them to see a play, 'The Ballad of Emmett Till,' and because there was space on the bus, the professor organizing the trip invited Jones and three others who were taking a seminar with her.

Per Armesto, details from the statement of facts read by the prosecution revealed that Jones appeared "happy and excited" before the football players arrived on the bus. However, he became "irritable" afterward and was quiet and kept to himself for the duration of the trip.

Information also revealed that Jones clearly targeted the football players. Texts from Jones to "an adult mentor" claimed that the football players had been messing with him during the trip, although no evidence was brought forth in the statement of facts suggesting that was the case, per Armesto. Jones also texted the mentor stating "they not getting off this bus."

Per Richard Gard of Virginia Magazine, Jones shot and killed Davis, Perry and Chandler as the bus was pulling up to the Culbreath Road drop-off point on campus. Another student was injured in that gunfire. Hollins initially escaped the bus after gunfire erupted but returned to try and help people still onboard to get off. However, Jones spotted him and shot Hollins in the back before fleeing. Police captured Jones the next morning.

Michael Haggard, an attorney representing three of the victims' families, told Armesto that the hope is for Jones, now 25 years old, to receive a life sentence with extremely limited chances of early release. However, he also expressed confidence that a judge will keep Jones imprisoned for life.