After waiving his right to a preliminary hearing in August 2023, Christopher Darnell Jones Jr., who is accused of killing three University students and injuring two others in a shooting Nov. 13, 2022, will face a jury in a three-week trial set to run Jan. 22 through Feb. 12 of 2025. The date was decided Feb. 5 by a judge in the Albemarle Circuit Court.
The shooting occurred November 13, 2022 on a chartered bus in the Culbreth parking garage. Jones allegedly opened fire on the bus, as the 23-year old University student and his classmates were returning from a school trip to D.C., killing his schoolmates and football players Devin Chandler, Lavel Davis Jr. and D’Sean Perry. The shooting resulted in a 12-hour University wide lockdown, ending with Jones’ arrest.
Jones is also accused of shooting and injuring Michael Hollins, Virginia Football player and graduate student, and third-year Commerce student Marlee Morgan during the incident. Both Hollins and Morgan have fully recovered from their injuries, and Hollins returned to the football field in September 2023 for his last season with his team.
Jones faces a total of 13 charges — five counts of unlawful firearm use, six counts of aggravated murder and two counts of malicious bodily injury. Jones has been denied bail and is currently being held at the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail as he awaits trial.
Jones was initially charged with three counts of second-degree murder, which were upgraded to aggravated murder charges after the convening of a special grand jury in September 2023. Aggravated murder is the most serious murder charge permitted under Virginia law — if Jones is convicted of aggravated murder, he faces a minimum sentence of life in prison.
According to the Washington Post, Albemarle County commonwealth attorney James Hingley said he only aims to obtain three convictions for aggravated murder against Jones, stating the other seven charges were obtained to grant the prosecution the “widest latitude” in presenting evidence to the jury.
The court declared Jones incapable of paying for his own attorney in 2022. After the grand jury hearing in September upgraded the charges against Jones, his publicly appointed legal team filed a motion to have attorney Douglas Ramseur, who has served as a criminal defense attorney for over 20 years, join Jones’ defense team. The judge subsequently approved the motion, with Ramseur joining the team in October.
Prior to Ramseur’s appointment, Jones’ legal team won the right to hire Clinical and Forensic Psychologist Jeffrey Aaron to testify as a mental health expert in Jones’ trial. Aaron serves as the juvenile justice and behavioral health program manager for the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health & Developmental Services — he also has a history of providing expert testimonies in regional court cases.
Outside of the court, Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares commissioned an external, third-party review of the incident, in part, to illuminate how it could have been prevented. The review was submitted to University officials who initially agreed to release the review in November 2023, but have since postponed this release until the end of Jones’ trial in February 2025 due to concerns about the report’s potential to impact the ongoing legal proceedings.
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