Overview
- Christopher Darnell Jones Jr. was sentenced to five life sentences plus 23 years for the 2022 shooting that killed three University of Virginia football players and wounded two students.
- Jones pleaded guilty in 2024 to three counts of first-degree murder, two counts of aggravated malicious wounding, and five counts of using a firearm in the commission of a felony.
- The victims were D'Sean Perry, Lavel Davis Jr. and Devin Chandler, who were shot on a charter bus returning from a class trip to Washington, D.C.
- Prosecutors argued the attack was calculated, presenting texts from the day of the shooting, a body-camera video of Jones after the attack, evidence of firearm possession, and testimony about his flight and arrest near his mother's home.
- The defense offered mitigation centered on Jones' traumatic upbringing, substance use and mental-health decline, with a forensic psychologist describing distorted perceptions that night, as survivors and families detailed lasting trauma and loss.