CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) – A University of Virginia student accused of fatally shooting three UVA football players and wounding two other students made his first in-person appearance in court Thursday, as a judge set a date for a hearing when witnesses will testify about the shootings on a bus carrying students back to campus from a field trip last month.
Christopher Darnell Jones Jr., 23, was led into court wearing handcuffs, leg irons and a striped jail jumpsuit. He sat quietly as his public defender, a prosecutor and Judge Kenneth Andrew Sneathern scheduled a preliminary hearing for March 30.
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If the judge decides after hearing from witnesses that the state has enough evidence to establish probable cause that Jones committed the killings, he’ll send the case to a grand jury. Commonwealth’s Attorney James Hingeley told the judge that the state plans to call a large number of witnesses.
Jones has not yet entered a plea, and Public Defender Liz Murtagh declined to comment.
Jones, a former member of the football team, is accused of opening fire on a charter bus as he and other students arrived back on campus after seeing a play and having dinner together in Washington, D.C. Authorities have not released a motive. A witness told police the gunman targeted specific victims. Football players Lavel Davis Jr., D’Sean Perry and Devin Chandler were killed, while a fourth member of the team, Mike Hollins, and another student, Marlee Morgan, were wounded.
Jones is being held without bond on second-degree murder and other charges in the shooting, which set off a manhunt and 12-hour campus lockdown before Jones was apprehended in suburban Richmond. His first Albemarle General District Court hearing was by video link from jail