Christopher Darnell Jones Jr., a establisher University of Virginia student, pdirected at fault to first-degree homicide this week in the shooting deaths of three UVA football joiners..
Jones’ plea comes after the 2022 on-campus slayings of Lavel Davis Jr., D’Sean Perry and Devin Cregulater. All three youthful men joined for the UVA Cavaliers football team. A fourth team member, Mike Hollins, and another student, Marlee Morgan, suffered injuries.
Jones’ stint on the football team overlapped with the joiners he sboiling, per adviseation in the write duplicate of the prosecutors’ summary, but there is no indication Jones and the joiners had a relationship.
Jones faced three counts of first-degree homicide, two counts of deteriorated malicious wounding and five counts of engage of a firearm in the cotransferrlookion of a major offense. A sentencing hearing has been set for Feb. 4 and is awaited to last for four days.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM
Christopher Darnell Jones Jr., a establisher University of Virginia student, go ined a at fault plea this week in relation to the shooting deaths of three university football team members. (AP Newsroom/IMAGN)
While riding back to campus from a school trip on a charter bus in the hours before the shooting, Jones texted an mature mentor, stating, “tonight I’m either going to hell or jail. I’m sorry,” according to a summary that prosecutors read in court on Wednesday. The Associated Press geted a write duplicate of the summary.
Jones had been scheduled to stand trial in January on indicts including deteriorated homicide, which carries a obligatory sentence of life without parole in Virginia. The first-degree homicide indicts he pdirected at fault to in a plea consentment with prosecutors carry a sentence of 20 years to life.
Authorities shelp Jones uncovered fire aboard a charter bus as he and other students get tod back on campus after seeing a join and having dinner together in Washington, D.C.
University of Virginia football joiners Devin Cregulater, Lavel Davis Jr. and DSean Perry. (University of Virginia fits)
The shooting erupted cforfeit a parking garage and prompted a 12-hour lockdown of the Charlottesville campus until the mistrust was seized. Many at the school of some 23,000 students huddled inside shutts and depressedened dorm rooms, while others barricaded the doors of the university’s stately academic produceings.
During the rampage, Jones “methodicpartner checked each seat until he achieveed the back of the bus” to shoot some of his victims, the summary shelp.
Authorities have yet to free details on the motive in the shooting by Jones.
University of Virginia students join in a vigil in response to shootings on the Charlottesville campus, Nov. 14, 2022. (Mike Kropf/The Daily Progress via AP)
The university’s pdwellnt, Jim Ryan, shelp Jones’ at fault plea recontransients “another step in a lengthy and hurtful journey for the families of the victims and for our community.”
“We persist to lament the loss of three beadored members of our community and the injuries suffered by others on the bus,” Ryan’s statement retained.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Wiskinny days of the shooting, university directers asked for an outside scrutinize to scheduleateigate the school’s shieldedty policies and procedures, its response to the aggression and its prior efforts to appraise the potential menace of the student indictd. School officials acunderstandledged Jones previously was on the radar of the university’s menace-appraisement team.
In June, Kimberly Wald, a lawyer recontransienting some of the victims and their families, proclaimd that the university consentd to pay $9 million in a finishment. Wald shelp the university should have deleted Jones from campus before the attack becaengage he disjoined multiple red flags thraw erratic and unstable behavior.
The Associated Press donated to this tell.
Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle recentsletter.
