CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – An Albemarle County Circuit Court judge sentenced Christopher Darnell Jones Jr. to life in prison for the triple murder of three University of Virginia football players, and the shooting of two other students, in November 2022.

Judge Cheryl Higgins gave Jones five life sentences, one each for the Nov. 13, 2022 murders of Devin Chandler, Lavel Davis Jr. and D’Sean Perry, and the aggravated malicious wounding of Michael Hollins and Marlee Morgan, as they were part of a 27-student group returning to the University of Virginia from a class field trip to Washington D.C.

Saying she saw no evidence that Jones that been threatened or bullied by anyone on the bus, Higgins called out the “execution style of the shootings” and “the victims being vulnerable,” before reading her decision.

As she read the sentences, count by count, there were gasps and tears from the victims’ friends and families, who had packed the court all week long.

Friday’s fifth and final day of Jones’ sentencing hearing opened and closed with high drama. The hearing was delayed by over three hours as the lawyers clashed over the admissibility of jailhouse phone calls earlier this week.

Then, in somewhat of a surprise, Jones chose to give an allocution.

Following closing arguments by both legal teams, Jones spoke to the court for the first time. In a sobbing, 15 minute address to the judge, families of his victims and his own supporters, Jones apologized for his actions and for the hurt he caused “everyone on that bus.” Some victims’ family members got up and walked out as he spoke.

“I’m so sorry,” Jones said. “I caused so much pain.”

Speaking to the families, Jones said: “I didn’t know your sons. I didn’t know your boys. And I wish I did.”

Higgins made her sentencing following five emotional days of testimony where she heard the families of Chandler, Davis Jr. and Perry, the three men shot to death by Jones aboard a bus after returning from a class field trip to Washington D.C. on Nov. 13, 2022. 

“This is the worst crime in Albemarle history,” assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Richard Farley told the court.

Jones pled 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 on Nov. 20, 2024.

That plea reduced his charges from aggravated first-degree murder, making him eligible for geriatric parole.

“The mercy was in the plea,” assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Susan Baumgartner said in response to the defense’s request for mercy from the judge.

After the prosecution rested its case on Tuesday, Jones’ defense team spent Wednesday and Thursday attempting to lessen his sentence. They called character witnesses who testified that Jones grew up in an abusive home, where violence was modeled by both his parents. Thursday afternoon, they called an expert, a forensic psychologist, who testified he believed that Jones displayed signs of mental illness and having paranoid delusions. 

But following a contentious cross examination by assistant Commonwealth Attorney Richard Farley, Higgins also questioned the expert, Dr. Jeffrey Aarons.

Throughout the trial, the judge had largely reserved her follow-up questions to witnesses to focusing on where different people were seated on the bus.

As she questioned Aarons, it became clear Higgins was skeptical that Jones would have shot the three football players behind him, then stop shooting, pass two other players, before exiting the bus and then shooting Michael Hollins in the back, as Hollins turned to flee. 

The sentencing hearing commenced Monday with testimony from two students who were on the bus and witnessed the shootings. Then Hollins’ mother, Brenda, took the stand, followed by Hollins himself.

In the afternoon, Albemarle County Police detective Mark Belew, Todd Richardson of the Emergency Communications (911) Center and Devin Chandler’s mother took the stand.

On Tuesday, the judge heard testimony from Marlee Morgan, another student shot that day, the older and younger sister and mother of D’Sean Perry and aunt of Lavel Davis Jr., as well as a special agent with the Virginia State Police who questioned Jones after his arrest.

The prosecution rested its case Tuesday afternoon.

The defense began its response on Wednesday, calling Jones’ uncle and cousin, two of Jones’ academic mentors, and a fraternity brother of Jones’.

Thursday, the defense called two witnesses who seemed to enhance the prosecution’s case. UVA drama professor Theresa “Lady T” Davis and Alexis Stokes, a friend of Jones’ who was on the trip, as well. Stokes did not want to testify and had been subpoenaed by the defense.

Both sobbing, they described the horrors of that day in graphic detail, and the lingering trauma it caused. 

“My heart aches every day for D’Sean, Lavel, Devin and the families. Chris had never presented like that,” Davis told the court. “It was unrecognizable to me, that level of evil in that moment.”