CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) \u2014 A former University of Virginia student was sentenced on Friday to life in prison for\u00a0fatally shooting three football players\u00a0and wounding two other students on the campus in 2022.<\/p>\n
Judge Cheryl Higgins gave Christopher Darnell Jones, Jr., who had been on the football team, the maximum possible sentence after listening to five days of testimony. Jones\u00a0pleaded guilty last year.<\/p>\n
The penalty includes five life sentences, one each for the killings of Devin Chandler, Lavel Davis Jr. and D\u2019Sean Perry, and the aggravated malicious wounding of Michael Hollins and Marlee Morgan,\u00a0Cville Right Now reported.<\/p>\n
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, D.C. The shooting erupted near a parking garage and prompted\u00a0a 12-hour lockdown\u00a0of the Charlottesville campus until\u00a0the suspect was captured. Many at the school of some 23,000 students huddled inside closets and darkened dorm rooms, while others barricaded the doors of the university\u2019s stately academic buildings.<\/p>\n
Jones\u2019 time on the team did not overlap with the players he shot and there was no indication they knew each other or interacted until briefly before the shooting.<\/p>\n
Jones will be able to apply for parole when he turns 60,\u00a0WTVR reported.<\/p>\n
Higgins said no one was bullying Jones that night and no was threatening him. The sentence was not \u201cvindictive\u201d but rather based on a logical analysis, said Higgins, who is an Albemarle County Circuit Court judge.<\/p>\n
Jones had \u201cdistortions in his perception\u201d or reality, but understood his actions, she said, noting that he texted people before the shooting that he would either \u201cgo to hell or spend 100-plus years in jail.\u201d Jones discarded clothing and the gun afterward and lied to police he ran into five minutes later, the judge said.<\/p>\n
Within days of the shooting, university leaders\u00a0asked for an outside review to investigate the school\u2019s safety policies and procedures, its response to the violence and its prior efforts to assess the potential threat of the student charged. School officials acknowledged Jones previously was on the radar of the university\u2019s threat-assessment team.<\/p>\n
The university last year\u00a0agreed to pay $9 million in a settlement\u00a0with victims and their families. Their attorney said the university should have removed Jones from campus before the attack because he displayed multiple red flags through erratic and unstable behavior.<\/p>\n
Jones tearfully addressed the court for 15 minutes during his sentencing hearing, apologizing for his actions and for the hurt he caused \u201ceveryone on that bus.\u201d Some victims\u2019 family members got up and walked out as he spoke.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m so sorry,\u201d Jones said. \u201cI caused so much pain.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking to the families, Jones said: \u201cI didn\u2019t know your sons. I didn\u2019t know your boys. And I wish I did.\u201d<\/p>\n
Michael Hollins, a football player who was wounded and survived, told reporters after the sentencing that justice was served \u201cfor the most part.\u201d<\/p>\n
“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\u2019t be hurting anyone else,\u201d Hollins said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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