Ex-University of Virginia student Christopher…
A former University of Virginia student was sentenced on Friday to life in prison for fatally capturing three soccer gamers and wounding two other college students on the campus in 2022.
Judge Cheryl Higgins gave Christopher Darnell Jones, Jr., who had been on the soccer staff, the utmost potential sentence after listening to 5 days of testimony. Jones pleaded guilty last yr.
The penalty consists of 5 life sentences, one each for the killings of Devin Chandler, Lavel Davis Jr. and D’Sean Perry, and the aggravated malicious wounding of Michael Hollins and Marlee Morgan, Cville Right Now reported.
Christopher Darnell Jones, Jr. was handed 5 life sentences for the deadly capturing of three University of Virginia soccer gamers. AP
Authorities said Jones opened fire aboard a constitution bus as he and other college students arrived back on campus after seeing a play and having dinner together in Washington, DC.
The capturing erupted close to a parking storage and prompted a 12-hour lockdown of the Charlottesville campus until the suspect was captured.
Many at the college of some 23,000 college students huddled inside closets and darkened dorm rooms, while others barricaded the doorways of the college’s stately educational buildings.
Jones’ time on the staff didn’t overlap with the gamers he shot and there was no indication they knew each other or interacted until briefly before the capturing.
Jones might be ready to apply for parole when he turns 60, WTVR reported.
Higgins said no one was bullying Jones that night time and no was threatening him.
University of Virginia head soccer coach Tony Elliott speaks at a memorial service for three soccer gamers fatally shot in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Nov. 19, 2022. AP
Police officers search a bus after a deadly capturing at the University of Virginia on Nov. 14, 2022. AP
The sentence was not “vindictive” but moderately based on a logical analysis, said Higgins, who is an Albemarle County Circuit Court decide.
Jones had “distortions in his perception” or actuality, but understood his actions, she said, noting that he texted people before the capturing that he would either “go to hell or spend 100-plus years in jail.”
Jones discarded clothes and the gun afterward and lied to police he ran into 5 minutes later, the decide said.
Within days of the capturing, college leaders requested for an outdoors review to examine the college’s security insurance policies and procedures, its response to the violence and its prior efforts to assess the potential risk of the student charged.
Virginia linebacker D’Sean Perry. UVA
Virginia large receiver Lavel Davis Jr.. University of Virginia
School officers acknowledged Jones beforehand was on the radar of the college’s threat-assessment staff.
The college last yr agreed to pay $9 million in a settlement with victims and their households.
Their attorney said the college ought to have eliminated Jones from campus before the assault because he displayed a number of purple flags through erratic and unstable habits.
Jones tearfully addressed the court for quarter-hour during his sentencing listening to, apologizing for his actions and for the harm he induced “everyone on that bus.” Some victims’ members of the family acquired up and walked out as he spoke.
“I’m so sorry,” Jones said. “I caused so much pain.”
Virginia large receiver Devin Chandler. Instagram/d.chanz
Speaking to the households, Jones said: “I didn’t know your sons. I didn’t know your boys. And I wish I did.”
Michael Hollins, a soccer participant who was wounded and survived, told reporters after the sentencing that justice was served “for the most part.”
“Even though that no amount of time on this earth in jail will repay or get those lives back, just a little bit of peace knowing that the man that committed those crimes won’t be hurting anyone else,” Hollins said.
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