CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — The University of Virginia student who allegedly killed three football players and gunned down two other classmates after a field trip Sunday shot one of the victims while he was sleeping in a “targeted” massacre, prosecutors argued in court Wednesday.
Witnesses said Christopher Darnell Jones Jr., 22, appeared to target his victims in the Sunday slaughter, and was not “randomly shooting,” according to prosecutors.
James Hingeley, arguing for the Commonwealth of Virginia, said one of the slain men, Devin Chandler, was shot as he napped. He and another victim, D’Sean Perry, were pronounced dead on the bus, while the third victim, Lavel Davis Jr., died at the hospital.
Fellow students saw “Chris point the gun at Devin Chandler and saw him shoot while he slept and slumped to the floor,” Hingeley said.
Christopher Darnell Jones Jr. allegedly killed three fellow students and injured two others after a field trip Sunday. Albemarle County SheriffââThe stonefaced mass murder suspect, appeared in the Albemarle General District Court virtually Wednesday from the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail, wearing a black and white jumpsuit over a white undershirt.
He told the court he wanted his own lawyer, not a court-appointed public defender and did not enter a plea to three counts of second-degree murder, two counts of malicious shooting with the intent to maim, disfigure, disable, or kill and five counts of using a handgun in the commission of a felony, explaining to the court he was still looking for legal representation.
Judge Andrew Sneathern ordered him held without bail until he could secure legal representation and enter a plea.
Jones told the court he worked eight hours a week at the Charlottesville Boys and Girls Club, earning $360 every other week.
The suspect and the victims had just taken a bus back from Washington, DC, where they had seen a play, when shots rang out. APThe former university football player had just returned from seeing a play with his victims on a school field trip to Washington, DC when he opened fire on the bus that had just pulled into UVA’s Charlottesville campus, officials said.
Michael Hollins, who also played football for the Virginia Cavaliers, and Marlee Morgan, a sophomore at the university, were injured, officials said.
Jones had been convicted of a concealed weapons offense last year and also received a suspended sentence for property damage and reckless driving in his hometown of Petersburg, Va, Hingeley also told reporters.
“We are all grieving and sad and devastated by these events in our community, and all of us in this community care for the victims’ families and wish for the speedy recovery of those, who are being treated at the hospital, and who are wounded, and wish there can be comfort for the family members of the victims who died in this terrible tragedy,” Hingeley said.
Hollins was recovering from a second surgery to have a bullet removed, and Morgan was released from the hospital, according to Fox News.
Jones had been previously arrested for an incident involving a concealed weapon. Getty ImagesA spokesman for the hospital, U.Va. Health, confirmed to The Post one patient injured in the massacre was in serious condition while the other had been discharged, without revealing which was Hollins and which was Morgan.
Members of the suspect’s family told The Post that the horrific mass shooting came after Jones was having “problems.”
Grandmother Mary Eliza Jones said on Tuesday “that things weren’t going well” for the suspect.
“I know he had a downfall,” she said about her grandson’s state of mind. “I believe he had some problems there,” she said, referring to UVA.
Jones’ father Christopher Darnell Jones Sr. told NBC 12 Monday his son told him “some people was picking on him” and “he didn’t know how to handle it.”
Jones was taken into custody following a 12-hour manhunt about 80 miles from campus in Henrico, Va. where his mother lives, officials said.
The suspect was listed on the Cavaliers’ freshman roster as a running back. He did not play in any games or suit up in subsequent years, according to school statistics.
The university community remained in shock and mourning following the rampage. On Monday, thousands of students held an emotional vigil for Chandler, Davis and Perry. Officials said Wednesday that UVA’s Saturday football game against Coastal Carolina was canceled.
The Washington Post confired Wednesday the field trip was taken as part of an African American theater studies course. The professor of that class could not immediately be reached for comment.
Jones was ordered to return to court by Judge Sneathern on Dec. 8 at 9:30 a.m. to enter a plea to the charges against him.
