‘No one was after him’: Day 4 of testimonies ahead of sentencing for man who killed 3 UVA football players

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WRIC) — Defense attorneys called the doctor who mentally evaluated the man who killed three University of Virginia football players in 2022 to testify on Thursday. He said the shooter has severe mental illness.

Thursday, Nov. 20, marked day 4 of 5 for the case against 26-year-old Christopher Darnell Jones, Jr., with it being the second day the defense was able to call witnesses.

Jones killed D’Sean Perry, Devin Chandler and Lavel Davis, Jr. on a charter bus coming back from a school field trip in Washington, D.C. in 2022.

The doctor was one of five people who took the stand on Thursday.

Facts of the case

On Nov. 13, 2022, around 27 UVA students headed to Washington, D.C. by bus, leaving campus a little before lunchtime. They were going to see a play as part of their African American Theatre class taught by Professor Theresa Davis.

The first 911 call of shots being fired came in at 10:58 p.m., just as the students were arriving back on campus.

Jones fled the scene and wasn’t arrested until around 11 hours later in Henrico County.

Twenty-two-year-old D’Sean Perry of Miami, Fla., 20-year-old Devin Chandler of Virginia Beach and 20-year-old Lavel Davis Jr. of Ridgeville, S.C., died at the scene. Michael Hollins, also a UVA football player at the time, and Marlee Morgan, a student, were wounded.

Jones pleaded guilty to 10 charges on Nov. 20, 2024, including three counts of first-degree murder, two counts of aggravated malicious wounding and five counts of the use of a firearm in the commission of a felony. His plea deal includes the possibility of parole if given a life sentence.

The prosecution is being led by Commonwealth’s Attorney Jim Hingley and the defense by Douglas Ramseur. The case is being heard by presiding Judge Cheryl Higgins.

A full recap of the first day of opening statements and testimony can be found here. A full recap of the second day of testimony can be found here. A full recap of the third day of testimony can be found here.

Witness One

After an hour-long delay due to technical difficulties in the courtroom, the defense team called Theresa Davis as the first witness of the day.

Davis has been a full-time professor at UVA since 2007, teaching in the drama department. She teaches a variety of classes, including African-American Theatre and Speaking Social Justice.

Davis was the professor leading the field trip to D.C. the day of the shooting. The three victims were either currently enrolled in the African-American Theatre class or had taken it previously.

In testimonies from earlier in the week, former students testified about how beloved Davis is by her students, even calling her a "legend."

Davis met Christopher Jones in the fall of 2022, as he was enrolled in her Speaking Social Justice course. It was a smaller class, with only three other female students. Davis said the smaller class size made it easier to get to know students on a deeper level.

Davis said Jones seemed "held" in the beginning of the semester, but eventually opened up and got more comfortable. She once noticed Jones crying in class after discussing a particular piece. He told her a family member had died and he was "mourning."

Davis, affectionately nicknamed "Lady T" by a former student, said she gave every student her cell phone number and that it was normal for her to check in.

"I am very blessed with the students I teach," she said, testifying through tears.

Davis said she called Jones later on when he told her a cousin had died. She assumed it was a recent death, but the Commonwealth said it had been two years since they died.

He also expressed on the phone call that he didn't always feel he belonged at UVA. She testified she reassured him he was doing well and did belong.

On Nov. 13, 2022, students from Davis' African-American Theatre and Speaking Social Justice classes, as well as a handful of previous students, departed for Washington, D.C.

"He was excited," Davis said, recounting what Jones had said leading up to the trip. She said he even brought snacks for some people.

Jones arrived early before getting on the bus. Davis saw him introduce himself to a student and mingle. The bus was larger than they needed for the 27 people going, so Jones was able to sit alone on the way there.

After seeing the play in D.C., the group went to an Ethiopian restaurant. Davis said she went by every table during dinner, checking in on the students. She saw Jones at the table, leaning back with his eyes closed, not interacting with others. She said she did not see him interacting with the three men who died.

She also said she didn't see any "bullying."

"That never happened," Davis said.

After dinner, Davis said Jones sat by himself again toward the back of the bus on the way back to campus.

Similar to previous testimonies heard earlier in the week, Davis described the bus ride back as a good time.

"There was just so much joy on the way back," she said. "A beautiful day up until the tragedy."

Devin Chandler was playing music, and she recalled students laughing.

At one point, she walked toward the back of the bus and saw Jones with his eyes closed and earbuds in, so she didn't interact with him. As they arrived back on campus, she'd made her way back toward the front of the bus and was bending down to gather her things, with a student asking her if she needed any help.

It was at this point that she heard the first gunshot and saw Lavel Davis standing. She then heard more shots and saw the bus driver running off the bus, the door to the bus closing behind him.

Davis said she tried to get between the doors so they wouldn't be trapped, but heard someone yell, "Get out of my way," and she suddenly fell from the steps of the bus and was on all fours on the ground. She saw red shoes and knew it was Jones who had said this to her.

She said she didn't remember feeling any impact of being pushed, just the impact of hitting the ground.

Davis gave her keys to a student to unlock the theatre building, so they could have a safe place to go. She then saw Marlee Morgan, a student who'd been shot, but made it off the bus. Davis said she saw blood on her. She stayed with Morgan until she got medical attention.

Inside the theatre building, students were crying in the lobby. Davis said she wanted to make sure the students were okay, but didn't want Morgan to go to the hospital alone. She rode in the ambulance with her.

When she arrived at the hospital, Davis was only able to go so far with Morgan. She overheard doctors say two more students had arrived. She didn't have her phone, as everything was left on the bus, so she had to borrow one to learn more about what was happening.

While at the hospital, she spoke to UVA head football coach Tony Elliott and prayed with Dean Michael Mason.

She tried to go back to the theatre building, but the area was blocked off. She later learned students were held in there as the lockdown to find Jones dragged on for over 11 hours.

Davis said she didn't know it was Jones who fired the gun at first, but connected the dots with how she'd heard Jones yell at her to "Get out of [the] way" before she fell out of the bus.

"It didn't sound like his voice," she said of that moment.

Davis described it as a "possession."

"It was unrecognizable to me -- that level of evil in that moment," she said. "My heart aches every day for D'Sean, Devin and Lavel, and their families.

Davis still works in the area where the shooting happened. In 2022, she had to move her classes to a different building, because it was and is "very difficult to be there."

Witness Two

The second witness called to testify was Alexis Stokes, a first-generation college student at UVA.

Stokes was visibly emotional for the majority of her testimony. She said she did not want to testify, but was subpoenaed by the defense.

Stokes said she met Jones in August 2022 through a mutual friend, who 8News has decided to refer to as "L.A." for the purposes of our reporting.

She, Jones and L.A. were three of the four students in Professor Davis's Speaking Social Justice class. They also spent time together outside of class socially.

Jones "ended up becoming [Stokes'] best friend," but he did not get along with L.A., according to Stokes.

Stokes said Jones opened up about personal struggles, including his rough childhood and "not feeling safe and protected in his home." She said this affected his motivation to go to class and "be okay mentally." She often tried to tell him that "he was loved and cared about."

Stokes recounted one time she and Jones were in the car together when he randomly pulled out a gun and placed it on his lap. She said she knew he had a gun, but not that he carried it.

"I was really scared," she said, adding that she'd experienced a previous incident involving gun violence that made her frightened of them.

Stokes also noticed changes in Jones from when she met him in August to November 2022, saying he changed the way he interacted socially and he was "all over the place" mentally. She said he was often paranoid and thought someone was "trying to hurt him," but the person who was "after him" was always changing and depended on the circumstances of where they were.

She described one night at a party when Jones and L.A. got into an argument because Jones thought she was "trying to set him up." This seemed delusional to Stokes.

Stokes said L.A. said something about Jones having small genitalia, and he started driving fast, scaring Stokes. She said she yelled at him to stop so she could get out.

The Commonwealth asked Stokes if she knew Jones and L.A. had intercourse previously, which she said she did. Stokes also knew Jones had some romantic interest in her, but she was not interested.

She began distancing herself from Jones.

"It was getting exhausting trying to make him understand no one was after him," Stokes said.

She said that, in the days leading up to the field trip, "he seemed to be back to himself." He'd asked if she wanted snacks for the bus ride and called her the morning of to see if she was on the way.

Stokes said he sat toward the back of the bus on the way to D.C. and didn't speak to him until dinner after the play. She asked if he liked it and said he seemed "regular" at first, but then the food arrived and he was back in an "isolated state."

Stokes said L.A. sat at a table with the football players on the trip and she overheard her and Devin Chandler exchange phone numbers on the bus ride back.

She doesn't believe Jones sat by anyone on the way back to campus, but she remembered hearing him discuss a video game with Lavel Davis. This is similar to what we heard Marlee Morgan testify to earlier in the week.

"It seemed like a normal conversation," Stokes said, remembering hearing one of them laughing.

Stokes was sitting right behind Lavel Davis and Morgan, who were sitting behind Jones. When the shooting started, she instinctively ducked under the seats in front of her. Morgan then made her way to Stokes' row and they huddled together.

The Commonwealth asked if Stokes remembered Jones saying to L.A., "You're lucky I don't shoot women." She said she did not.

Stokes said the shooting is the first thing she thinks about when she wakes up and the last thing she thinks about when she goes to bed.

"I just don't understand how we're here today," she said. "It was a lot then and it's a lot now."

Witness Three

The third and longest testimony was from Dr. Jeffrey Aaron, who testified for over three hours. Aaron has an independent practice of psychological analysis and is an expert in forensic psychology.

He was appointed to evaluate Jones in early 2023 for the purpose of sentencing for the defense team. The evaluation would include interviewing Jones, family and friends, as well as going through his records with a fine-toothed comb to understand his history and moments leading up to the shooting.

Aaron met with Jones four times over 15 months and spent a total of 16 hours with him. He interviewed 13 people -- his mother, father, siblings, uncle, cousin, two clinicians at the jail, Professor Davis, a friend from UVA, former teacher and coach -- and went through thousands of records, including video and audio recordings from law enforcement.

Aaron said three things stood out: violence exposure, violence from mother and father and a sense of being "gaslit," as no one would ever acknowledge the abuse he endured.

Jones was 13 years old when he was first diagnosed with "distortions in his perceptions."

Aaron said Jones felt rejected by his mother, who told him she hated him and wanted him dead. Aaron said Jones reported he was regularly locked out of their home when he hit middle school.

Jones's father was in and out of jail and didn't show a particular interest in being a father when he was out. Based on previous testimony from other family members, he was inconsistent in showing up for his scheduled visitation with Jones and his three siblings.

Aaron said "football gave [Jones] a place where he could belong" and exposed him to adult mentors.

Conflict with his mom didn't stop until he moved in with his father and grandmother in Petersburg for his senior year of high school. While previous testimonies allude to Jones being very successful in Petersburg, Aaron said Jones was actually deeply distressed and contemplating suicide at the time. He was excited to attend UVA to get out of Petersburg.

He walked onto the football team his freshman year at UVA, but a chronic ankle injury got him cut. Aaron said he sensed sadness from Jones about this rather than anger -- something he thought was a normal reaction for most people in a similar position.

Aaron also said Jones told him about being hazed when he pledged the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity. Jones and other pledges were put under physical duress without eating or resting, with one boy reportedly ending up in the hospital. Jones also had to put a "smelly concoction" in his hair and walk around with a hood up. Aaron said this would be "humiliating ... for most people in college," but especially Jones, since he already felt he wasn't measuring up.

Everyone in his pledge class dropped out ahead of initiation, except for him.

When UVA closed due to COVID-19 in early 2020, "things fell apart for him at that point," Aaron said.

Jones' sister got in a bad accident and, because of COVID-19, he couldn't be in the hospital with her. Aaron said he also began smoking more marijuana, taking pills and drinking.

Aaron said Jones told him about a car wreck he got into that led to a serious brain injury. Jones fled the scene after hitting someone, later hitting a utility pole. It was recommended that he get a brain evaluation, but he didn't.

Aaron said this brain injury could've impacted him in the short term in terms of concentrating. He ultimately ended up dropping out of UVA.

He was arrested for the hit and run and a gun charge, but the case was later appealed. He told Aaron he was worried people would think he snitched about something and that's why he got released from jail early.

Jones was selling marijuana, typically to Virginia State University students, at this point. Jones told Aaron about being shot at during a deal one time.

Aaron said Jones's mental state began deteriorating in the summer of 2022 when he decided to re-enroll at UVA.

Aaron doesn't think Jones was acting rationally and noted that he can't control it, but if treated, he can identify when irrational thinking begins.

Aaron was aware of "drama" between Jones, Stokes and L.A. and that Jones believed L.A. was "setting him up."

He also testified about a Halloween party Jones attended in October 2022, where five men came in and danced near him. Jones took this as a threat. Aaron also reported on Jones being beaten multiple times by the same person in the video game Grand Theft Auto, and that Jones had interpreted his losses as the player planning to kill him.

Through interviewing other sources, Aaron learned about a time when Jones was whispering to himself in a social setting and left thinking he was being talked about. There was even an outburst a few days before the shooting, where he yelled at some friends for not caring about him.

On the day of the shooting, Aaron said that, according to Jones, he wasn't planning to bring his gun with him -- but he saw L.A. would be on the field trip and went back to his place to get it. He then learned five football players were on the trip, and Jones had a sense that something bad would happen that day.

Aaron said Jones made a correlation to the five men from the Halloween party he felt threatened by. The football players on the field trip were not the men at the party.

Aaron said Jones told him someone stepped on his shoe as he was getting on the bus and this made him worry. Aaron said this seemed like a normal thing to happen, but for Jones, there was "a hidden meaning."

Jones noticed L.A. was being friendly with the football players and believed that they were plotting against him. Someone bumped into him, people were watching him and waiting for him to fall asleep, someone took his food. Several things happened throughout the day that Aaron believes Jones interpreted incorrectly and that he was "acting out of misplaced fear."

On the bus ride home, Aaron said Jones sensed he was being set up and needed to take action. He said Jones described first thinking to let it go, then that he was going to commit suicide -- but if he committed suicide, he wouldn't be able to tell anyone what had happened to him on the trip.

Aaron said Jones told him he was saying, "Do it, don't do it, do it, don't do it," over and over again in his head until he started shooting "impulsively." Aaron said Jones told him: "Everything just left me."

The Commonwealth asked Aaron if he believed Jones had a self-interest in the way he answered questions during the interviews, and Aaron said yes, but added that he finds him to be credible since a lot of the information he shared was not flattering.

Based on the information we heard about Jones feeling threatened by the five men at the party, and feeling threatened by the five football players on the field trip, the judge questioned if his shots were "random." Aaron said Jones "perceived young men as a threat."

Witness Four

The fourth witness, Mallorie Fouser, read a victim impact statement after surviving the shooting.

Fouser was on the field trip and had bought a new white dress and boots for the occasion.

Fouser's boyfriend, a football player, was not on the trip, but she knew the players on the trip through him.

The play made Fouser emotional. She said she remembered Lavel Davis sitting next to her saying, "Stop crying, Mallorie, it's okay," in a joking but also caring way.

She recalled eating dinner with the three men who died at the restaurant after the play and having a good time.

"Devin [Chandler] could make anyone laugh, and I was no exception," Fouser said.

She remembered the bus ride back to campus when "disaster struck." She remembered seeing Davis struggling with Jones after hearing the first gunshot and then watching him fall to the ground.

Fouser eventually made her way over to his body and tried to feel for a pulse, but could "only see the wounds in him."

She made it off the bus, her new white dress and hands stained with blood.

"Did my friends really just die?" Fouser said she asked herself.

She said she spent those 11 hours on lockdown in the theatre building with Davis' blood on her.

Witness Five

The final testimony of the day was a victim impact statement read by Quentin Chandler, Jr., Devin Chandler's older brother.

Quentin reflected on dropping Devin off at UVA and going to lunch with him and Lavel Davis while he was there.

He said the three men's character is evident by the dozens of people who've shown up to court each day.

"These three gone are holes in communities, holes in families," he said.

Quentin has two daughters, now seven and three years old -- but they were only four years old and seven months old when their Uncle Devin died.

He said he and his mom were driving to Charlottesville from Virginia Beach the night of the shooting. His mom insisted she drive, and he got a call that Devin had succumbed to his injuries. Quentin said that, in that moment, he didn't have the heart to tell his mother himself.

One more witness will testify on Friday, Nov. 21. Both sides will then give their closing statements and the judge will announce Jones' sentencing.