Q -- Sandy, this shooting happened on a chartered bus that was bringing students home from a field trip to Washington, D.C. Do we know, now, what his motive was?
You know when we learned that Jones had played on the university’s football team and been cut, many people assumed he killed Devin Chandler, Lavel Davis Jr., and D'Sean Perry because he was jealous or wanted revenge. As it turns out, Jones played before they came to UVA, and he didn’t really know them.
Q – So why would he have targeted them?
Well, for one thing his ex-girlfriend was sitting with them on the bus and at dinner, but jealousy wouldn’t explain such a violent act.The root of what happened may go back to the awful childhood Jones had.He was abused by both parents. His mother told him she hated him and wanted to kill him.Sometimes she would locked him out of the house, forcing him to sleep in a laundromat or at the home of a coach.
A psychologist testified that this childhood trauma led to symptoms that got worse over time – a feeling that he did not belong, was not good enough and to a sense that people wanted to hurt or kill him.
Q -- But he was homecoming king at his high school, got straight As and was admitted to UVA.How was that possible given his personal problems?
The psychologist, Dr. Jeffrey Aaron, says many children who have trouble at home do excel at school, and Jones got positive reinforcement from playing football.There he excelled and had support from his coach and teammates.
Q -- And what about his time at UVA?Doesn’t the school have programs to help kids who are the first in their families to attend college.
Yes.Jones said his first year at school was the best of his life, but in his second year he began to have problems.He said he didn’t feel he fit in and was stabbed in the face during a fight off campus.
He had a chronic ankle injury that kept him from playing football, so he was cut from the team and endured extreme hazing to join a fraternity.
When COVID hit, Jones went back to Petersburg, He was depressed.and started using drugs – Percoset, Xanax and marijuana.He was also selling pot and got robbed at gunpoint, so he felt he needed a weapon for protection.
Q—But that doesn’t explain why he’d need a gun on a field trip.
Right! By 2022, friends and relatives had noticed that Jones was increasingly paranoid. He felt sure people were out to get him. Dr. Aaron said he would sometimes settle down – appearing calm, but then something would trigger his fear.
When he boarded the bus, for example, on November 13th of 2022, someone stepped on his toe. He sat alone, and when students laughed he was convinced they were laughing at him. Before the shooting he texted that those boys have been [messing] with me all day.
Q – So why didn’t he pursue a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity.
By law, that plea is reserved for people who can’t tell the difference between right and wrong.As the bus pulled onto campus, Jones said his brain was shouting at him – Do it! Don’t do it!Do it!Don’t do it.
After he shot three students dead and seriously injured two others, he ran from the bus to his car.
En route, he was stopped by a campus police officer who questioned him. Jones was calm and polite, but he had thrown his gun away along with a red hoodie that would have made him a suspect. The officer asked Jones to lift his T-shirt. Seeing no weapons, he sent him on his way.
Jones told Dr. Aaron that driving toward his mother’s home in Richmond, he knew he had done the worst thing in his life – that it was terrible.
Because he sometimes thought rationally, the psychologist ruled out schizophrenia.He was not legally insane, but Aaron said he suffered serious mental illness – major depression, substance abuse and most of all trauma-related stressor disorder that led him to misunderstand people and situations.When he shot his fellow students, he was convinced they wanted to kill him.
Q – So what was the verdict, and what happens now?
The judge decided to give the toughest sentence she could, based on the way Jones had behaved.He shot Lavel Davis, for example, and when the man fell to floor, Jones shot him again in the head.He shot Michael Hollins in the back as he ran away, and two other victims may have been sleeping.Judge Cheryl Higgins concluded they were no threat to Jones and couldn’t have been more vulnerable.
His lawyers had begged for mercy, suggesting a sentence of 40 years would be enough. But prosecutors said a life sentence was needed to show families of the victims, who filled seven benches in the courtroom day after day, that their children mattered. After the life sentence was pronounced and court adjourned, they applauded.
Jones is already on medication at the regional jail, and he told the court he planned to work on his mental health, to finish his degree and to help others. He sobbed and told the families he was truly sorry, but said he knew they would not accept his apology. He thanked those who had believed in him – teachers and administrators in Petersburg who helped him win a scholarship to UVA – and said he would be alright.
He is now 26 and under current law could be considered for parole when he turns 60.
