Man pleads guilty to murder of 3 UVA players

Nov 20, 2024, 02:37 PM ET CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.– A former University of Virginia student pleaded guilty Wednesday to fatally shooting 3 football players and injuring two other trainees on the Charlottesville school in 2022.

Christopher Darnell Jones Jr., 25, pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree murder, 2 counts of intensified destructive wounding and 5 counts of usage of a gun in the commission of a felony. A four-day sentencing hearing is set up to start Feb. 4 in Albemarle County Circuit Court. Jones faces a maximum punishment of five life terms plus 23 years, according to a declaration from UVA.Authorities stated

Jones opened fire on a charter bus as he and other students got here back on campus after seeing a play and having supper together in Washington, D.C.Editor’s Picks 1 Related Authorities had not released a motive.

Jones was a

former member of the Virginia football group at the time of the shooting. A witness told police that he had targeted specific victims.Football players Lavel Davis Jr., D’Sean Perry and Devin Chandler were eliminated, while a 4th member of the

group, Mike Hollins, and another trainee, Marlee Morgan, were wounded.”Today, we sat eye to eye with the defendant as he plead guilty to ALL charges,”the Perry household said in a statement to ESPN.”It is now in God’s hands. We ask the public to join us at the open sentencing hearing so that we can send out the message to the offender and the judge on the effect of the actions the accused handled November 13, 2022 and what each life indicated!!” “Today’s procedures represent another action in a prolonged and painful journey for the families of the victims and for our community,” UVA president Jim Ryan added in a statement.” We continue to grieve the loss of three precious members of our community and the injuries suffered by others on the bus.”The shooting emerged near a parking lot and triggered panic and a 12-hour

lockdown of the school until the suspect was captured.Within days of the shooting, university leaders had requested for an outside review to investigate Virginia’s safety policies and treatments, its reaction to the violence and its prior efforts to examine the potential threat of the trainee who was eventually charged. School officials acknowledged he previously had been on the radar of the university’s threat-assessment team.In June, a legal representative representing some of the victims and their households had actually announced that the university had actually consented to pay$9 million in a settlement.Kimberly Wald, an attorney who represents a few of the households, said at the time that the school would pay $2 million each to the families of

the three students who passed away, the maximum allowed under Virginia law. The school would likewise pay $3 million overall to the 2 trainees who were wounded.Following the settlement, some of the households had actually also called for the immediate release of an independent examination into the shooting, which was finished last

year.Wald had stated the university must have eliminated Jones from campus before the attack due to the fact that he displayed numerous warnings through unpredictable and unsteady habits.”We were thrown in the fire on that horrific night when our phone rang, “the Perry household declaration continued.”The time is now that we require change!! It’s time that we protect our children. We can be safe in our homes, on our street and at our schools !! We have a right to be safe!!” University authorities stated they had delayed the report’s release in 2015 over issues that it might impact a trial that had been set up for January. UVA stated in Wednesday’s statement that university leaders have actually committed to

release copies of the external evaluation at the end of the criminal procedures, and plan to offer the documents to the public after sentencing.ESPN’s Andrea Adelson and The Associated Press contributed to this report.