Former student pleads guilty to fatally shooting three University of Virginia football players in 2022

RICHMOND, Va. — A former University of Virginia student pleaded guilty Wednesday shooting dead three football players and injured two other students on campus in 2022.

Christopher Darnell Jones Jr., 25, pleaded guilty to 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 four-day sentencing hearing is scheduled to open Feb. 4 in Albemarle County Circuit Court.

Prosecutors read in court Wednesday a summary of what they claim happened on the day of the shooting, including chilling details that have not been made public before.

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

Jones was scheduled to stand trial in January on the charge of 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. a 12-hour block of the Charlottesville campus until suspect was captured. Many at the school of about 23,000 students huddled in lockers and darkened dormitories, while others barricaded the doors of the university’s imposing academic buildings.

The university founded by Thomas Jefferson in 1819 also endured the violent “Unite the Right” rally in 2017which drew hundreds of white nationalists protesting the planned removal of a Confederate statue. A car drove into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing one person and injuring several others.

Authorities had not released a motive for the shooting of Jones, a former member of the university’s football team. Football players Lavel Davis Jr., D’Sean Perry and Devin Chandler were killed, while a fourth team member, Mike Hollins, and another student, Marlee Morgan, were injured.

Jones’ time on the team did not overlap with the players he fired, according to prosecutors’ draft summary. And there was no indication that Jones and the players knew each other or interacted until shortly before the shooting.

A witness previously told police that Jones targeted certain victims.

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

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

According to prosecutors, a woman who rejected Jones romantically exchanged phone numbers with Chandler, one of the men who was later killed.

Jones told his adult mentor by text before the shooting: “Tell me the story. I was a good guy, I never wanted to hurt anyone, nor did I initiate any harm,” prosecutors said.

In his final message, Jones typed: “Don’t get off this bus.”

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

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

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

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

Days after the shooting, university leaders requested an external evaluation investigate the school’s safety policies and procedures, its response to violence, and its previous efforts to assess the potential threat of 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 representing 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 unstable behavior.

Attorney Michael Haggard, who represented the families of three of the five shooting victims in the civil case, said they initially opposed a plea deal because they wanted Jones to stand trial and receive the maximum possible sentence under felony charges, which is life without the possibility of parole.

“It was difficult for them. He would have wanted more, but he is looking forward to this sentence. They want life in prison,” Haggard said.

Haggard said the families were eager to release the independent inquiry report, adding: “They wanted a trial to find out more about what the hell happened.”

University officials said they delayed releasing the report last year because of fears it could affect Jones’ trial. School officials said in a statement Wednesday that they plan to release her once the sentence is final in February.

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Finley reported from Norfolk, Virginia.