Shooter who killed 3 University of Virginia football players gets 5 life sentences plus additional 23 years

By: Cameron Thompson
Posted 11:38 AM, Nov 21, 2025 and last updated 8:56 PM, Nov 21, 2025

ALBEMARLE COUNTY, Va. — The man who killed three University of Virginia football players in 2022 was given the maximum penalty for his crimes on Friday. ... After five days of a testimony, Judge Cheryl Higgins handed down five life sentences with an additional 23 years to Christopher Darnell Jones, Jr.

Jones, 26, pleaded guilty in November 2024 to three counts of first-degree murder, five counts of using a firearm in the commission of a felony and two counts of aggravated malicious wounding for the Nov. 13, 2022, shooting that killed University of Virginia football players D’Sean Perry, Lavel Davis Jr. and Devin Chandler and wounded two other students on a charter bus returning to campus from a class trip to Washington, D.C.

Higgins delivered her decision after an hour of deliberations that followed two hours of closing statements. ... She said it was not a "vindictive sentence" but based off a logical analysis and that the "facts do merit a life prison sentence."

Higgins said no one was bullying Jones that night and that he had no basis to perceive anyone on the bus that night as a threat and yet chose to open fire in a dark space and execute people without the slightest pause. ... Higgins added that while she agreed that Jones had "distortions in his perception" of reality, it did not interfere with his understanding of his actions. ... She said Jones still continued to work, volunteer, and complete classes while having these thoughts.

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Ex-University of Virginia student gets five life sentences for fatally shooting 3 football players

The Associated Press
November 21, 2025, 9:36 PM


FILE - University of Virginia head football coach Tony Elliott speaks at a memorial service for three football players that were fatally shot, in Charlottesville, Va., Nov. 19, 2022. (Mike Kropf/The Daily Progress via AP, File)(AP/Mike Kropf)

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — A former University of Virginia student was sentenced on Friday to life in prison for fatally shooting three football players and wounding two other students on the campus in 2022.

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 pleaded guilty last year.

The penalty includes five 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.

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