Man Who Murdered Three Virginia Football Players in 2022 Gets Five Life Sentences

The shooting rocked the sport and led to an outpouring of support for the Cavaliers.

The college football world stood behind Virginia after Christopher Darnell Jones Jr. killed three players in Nov. 2022. / Megan Smith, Megan Smith / USA TODAY NETWORK

Judge Cheryl Higgins sentenced Christopher Darnell Jones Jr. Friday to five life sentences plus 23 years for the murders of three Virginia football players on Nov. 13, 2022.

Jones, 26, pleaded guilty in 2024 to murdering wide receiver Devin Chandler, wide receiver Lavel Davis, and linebacker D’Sean Perry; he also pleaded guilty to the aggravated malicious wounding of running back Mike Hollins and sprinter Marlee Morgan.

The shooting—perpetrated on a bus returning from a trip to see a play in Washington, D.C.—rocked college football and led to the cancellation of the Cavaliers’ 2022 season. It also led to support for Virginia throughout the college football world, with Hollins’s return in 2023 generating much media attention.

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Per Mike Barber of CVIlle Right Now, Jones emotionally apologized for his crimes, with “some victims’ family members [getting] up and [walking] out as he spoke.”

“Knowing that he has been given a time and justice has been served for the most part even though that no amount of time on this Earth in jail will get those lives back, just a little bit of peace knowing the man that committed those crimes won't be hurting anyone else,” Hollins told reporters outside the Charlottesville courthouse following Jones's sentencing via ESPN's Andrea Adelson.

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