Suspect Accused of Killing 3 University of Virginia Football Players Denied Bail as New Revelations Emerge | CNN

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The student accused of killing three University of Virginia football players after a school field trip was denied bail Wednesday during a hearing in Charlottesville.

A witness said suspect Christopher Darnell Jones Jr. shot one of the players, Devin Chandler, as he slept, the Albemarle County prosecutor said. Fellow UVA Cavaliers Lavel Davis Jr. and D’Sean Perry were also killed.

Wednesday’s hearing also revealed that Jones was charged and convicted of reckless driving and hit and run in 2021 and was charged with concealed weapons the same year. He was given a suspended sentence for all the offences.

Jones is still being held at Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail, according to online records. He has been assigned a public defender until his next hearing in December – a status hearing that will determine whether Jones retained a private attorney, Albemarle County Attorney James Hingeley said. .

Jones was on a field trip Sunday with other UVA students to see a play in Washington, DC, a university spokesperson said.

When the bus returned to the Charlottesville campus, authorities said, the 22-year-old opened fire on the bus, killing Chandler, Davis and Perry.

Jones faces three counts of second-degree murder and three counts of using a handgun in the commission of a felony, UVA Police Chief Timothy Longo Sr said.

He also faces two counts of malicious wounding, each accompanied by a firearms charge. Two others were injured in the shooting, Hingeley said.

The prosecutor identified the injured as Marlee Morgan and Michael Hollins.

One was in serious condition and the other was discharged from hospital, UVA Health spokesman Eric Swensen said Tuesday. Swensen did not identify either person.

Hollins, a junior running back for the college football team, was intubated but stable Tuesday morning, his family said. CNN has contacted Marlee Morgan’s family.

UVA student Ryan Lynch told CNN affiliate KYW-TV that she was on the bus where the shooting took place and saw Jones pushing one of the victims.

“Chris stood up and pushed Lavel,” Lynch said. “After pushing him, he was like, ‘You’re still laughing at me.’ He said something weird like that, but it was very weird because they didn’t talk to him the whole trip.

Then gunshots rang out.

“They kept coming, more and more gunshots,” Lynch told KYW. “We thought he was going to shoot everyone on the bus.”

But “the shooter kind of walked or, like, jumped off the bus,” Lynch said.

UVA’s scheduled game against Coastal Carolina on Saturday has been canceled, the university’s athletic department announced Wednesday.

“The game would have been Virginia’s final home game of the 2022 season,” an Athletic Department statement said.

“A decision on whether Virginia will play in its final game of the season, a Nov. 26 (Saturday) date against Virginia Tech at Blacksburg, has not been made at this time.”

Meanwhile, the Atlantic Coast Conference released guidelines on Wednesday outlining how the rest of the conference will support UVA going forward.

“The ACC is a family and when one member of our family suffers, we all suffer,” said Jim Phillips, ACC Commissioner, in a report. “Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone affected and we will continue to support UVA in any way we can during this difficult time.”

The ACC has produced UVA helmet decals that will be worn by all schools in the conference, and a moment of silence will be observed at all ACC home football games this weekend, according to a statement from the conference.

The ACC also produced UVA resistant graphics for conference schools to use on social and digital media.

Prior to Sunday’s shooting, Jones was the subject of an ongoing case with the university’s judicial board as Sunday’s shooting unfolded, officials said.

“On September 15, as part of a review of a potential hazing issue, UVA Student Affairs learned from a student that Mr. Jones made a comment to him about possessing a firearm. fire,” said university spokesman Brian Coy.

That person “did not see Mr. Jones in possession of a firearm” and the “comment about possession of a firearm was not made in conjunction with a threat,” Coy said.

“During their investigation, University officials spoke to Mr. Jones’ roommate, who gave no indication of the presence of weapons. During their investigation, University officials discovered that Mr. Jones had previously been tried and convicted of a concealed weapons violation offense in 2021, for which he was sentenced to 12 months in prison with suspended sentence and a small fine.

Coy said throughout the investigation “Mr. Jones repeatedly refused to cooperate with University officials who were seeking additional information about the allegations that he had a firearm and his failure to disclose. previous misdemeanor conviction.

“The threat assessment team escalated their case for disciplinary action” on October 27, Coy said.

The school’s judicial board has taken over the case and the results are pending, said Longo, the school’s police chief.

Jones was also involved in a campus hazing investigation that was closed because witnesses were uncooperative, Longo said.

Jones is listed on the UVA Athletics website as a football player in 2018 who, as a rookie, did not appear in any games. An UVA spokesperson told CNN Jones has a pre-existing injury that kept him out of the football team in 2018.

Jones underwent medical treatment and rehabilitation during his time with the team and was only a member of the team for one season, the spokesman said.

“What I do know is that the youngster was a student from 2018 and was invited for a semester with our football program,” Williams said on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, UVA football head coach Tony Elliott spoke publicly for the first time since the shooting. He described the days following the attack as a nightmare.

“I’m ready for someone to pinch me and wake me up and say that didn’t happen,” Elliott said, adding that Tuesday “was a lot better, we were able to go from pain to finding a little of joy in celebrating the lives of Lavel, D’Sean and Devin.

The deaths of players Chandler, Davis Jr. and Perry left three huge holes in a team that felt more like family than anything, the coach said. He went on to describe them, calling Chandler “the party life”, Davis “the big man on campus”, and Perry “the quiet guy everyone wanted to know”.

Elliott praised the strength of his team and staff for coming together and being able to process the shoot. Elliott said the team inspired him to keep pushing forward. At the same time, he said the staff had made it their mission to ensure the team had all the resources they needed and that no one isolated themselves.

“The message to the team is that we’re going to celebrate their lives going forward and the impact they’ve had so far and the legacy they’re going to help us build going forward,” he said. Elliott said.

Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly spelled UVA Health spokesperson Eric Swensen’s last name.