CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – D’Sean Perry’s older sister tearfully told a judge about how Perry’s murder came just shortly before he was about to become an uncle for the first time.

Perry’s younger sister said their family has been, “shattered.”

Perry’s mother told the court she was there as, “his voice.”

And Lavel Davis Jr.’s aunt angrily and emphatically made it clear what the families of the victims of the 2022 on-campus murder of three University of Virginia football players want when convicted killer Christopher Darnell Jones Jr. is sentenced later this week.

“Life sentence after life sentence after life sentence,” Kwame Green told Albemarle County Circuit Court judge Cheryl Higgins on Tuesday during an emotionally charged second day of Jones’ sentencing hearing.

Jones pled guilty in November 2024 to three counts of first-degree murder, two counts of aggravated malicious wounding and five counts of use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.

He faces a minimum of 32 to 54 years and five months in jail for each murder count, in addition to a mandatory 23 years for the other charges.

UVA football players Devin Chandler, Davis Jr. and Perry were killed, Michael Hollins and a fifth student, Marlee Morgan, were injured when Jones shot them on, and outside, a bus they had all taken to Washington D.C. for a class field trip.

Chandler’s mother, Hollins, and Hollins’ mother were among the Commonwealth’s witnesses Monday.

Tuesday, the witnesses included Morgan, Perry’s older and younger sisters, and Davis’s aunt.

Dominique Alexis, eight years older than her little brother, D’Sean, testified that the family has endured “a special kind of torture.” She said she named her daughter after her late brother.

“She doesn’t know him,” Alexis told the court. “Uncle D was supposed to teach her to throw a football.”

D’Shandra Perry, two years younger than D’Sean, said her brother’s murder, “shattered the whole foundation of who we are.”

She was later admonished by the judge for making eye contact with Jones, who sat stoically to the left of the witness stand.

“Accountability matters,” D’Shandra Perry said. “My brother’s life matters.”

When Perry’s mother, Happy, took the stand, an attorney handed her a photo of D’Sean.

“This is my baby,” she told the court.

Happy Perry testified about D’Sean’s personality, his love of football and his passion for art. Before concluding her testimony, she showed the court a small figurine Perry had made – “a self-portrait” – that she carries with her.

“My heart will never heal,” Happy Perry said. “… Until I get the closure I need, this hurt will never go away.”

Green was the Commonwealth’s final witness. She called the three years since Davis’s murder “a living nightmare for our entire family.”

“It’s been three years since I heard my nephew’s voice,” Green told the court. “We often wonder where he’d be today.”

Green forcefully concluded her testimony, and the Commonwealth’s case, by saying the victims’ families had been “condemned to life sentences. Life sentence, after life sentence, after life sentence.”

The Commonwealth rested its case and the defense will begin calling its own witnesses Wednesday morning. Judge Higgins is likely to sentence Jones on Friday.

The hearing began Monday morning with the prosecution and defense’s opening statements. The defense indicated it would argue that Jones’ abusive childhood should be considered a mitigating factor in his sentencing. It also suggested that Jones’ victims had been “messing” with him during the trip, a claim denied by a trio of Commonwealth witnesses called that morning – survivor Michael Hollins and two other students on the bus who witnessed the shooting.

Xuled Stiff and Megan Deane testified about what they say before, during and after the field trip, and about the emotional anguish they have endured since the shooting.

Hollins’ mother Brenda, and then Hollins, outlined their experiences as a result of the shooting.

Monday afternoon, Det. Mark Belew laid out a timeline of the case, including Jones’ capture, revealing University Police had actually stopped, questioned and searched Jones shortly after the shooting, but let him go because his clothes didn’t match the description of the suspect they were looking for at that point.

Monday concluded with testimony from the mother of the third victim, Chandler.