Colt Gray, the teenager accused of killing four students and injuring nine others in the 2024 shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, pleaded guilty to all 55 charges on Friday. The non-negotiated plea hearing concluded without a trial as emotional survivors and victims’ families delivered harrowing testimony in court.
Apalachee High School Shooter Enters Guilty Plea on 55 Counts
Colt Gray entered a non-negotiated guilty plea to all 55 charges against him in court. Charged as an adult, the defendant admitted guilt without any pre-arranged deal between his attorneys and the prosecution, leaving his final sentence entirely up to the judge. The minimum is life with parole; the maximum is life without parole. The charges include malice murder, aggravated battery, and aggravated assault stemming from the attack that shook Barrow County.
The legal proceedings follow months after Gray’s attorneys indicated that they were attempting to negotiate a plea deal for the teen, with Judge Nicholas Primm having set a deadline for a possible plea. In June, Primm ordered Gray’s trial be moved to Columbia County, arguing that the widespread local, statewide, and national coverage of the case would make it difficult to find unbiased jurors in Barrow County, where the shooting took place. Four people, 14-year-old students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo and teachers Richard Aspinwall and Cristina Irimie, were killed in the shooting. Another teacher and eight students were wounded.
Family, Friends of Victims Give Emotional Testimony
As the legal reckoning unfolded, family members and friends of the victims gave emotional testimony. One by one, family members took the stand to recount the tragedy that occurred when Colt Gray, who in September 2024 at age 14, brought an AR-15-style rifle to Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, and opened fire. Four people were killed and nine were injured before he surrendered to police.
Colin Gray Convicted in Father’s Trial
The trial began Monday morning for Colin Gray, the father of the teenager charged in the September 4, 2024, mass shooting at Apalachee High School in Barrow County. The first day of testimony at the Barrow County Courthouse was marked by emotional accounts from teachers, administrators, and law enforcement who described what they witnessed the day of the shooting. Prosecutors told jurors that Gray purchased the firearm for his son even after being alerted by law enforcement about online threats the teen had allegedly made. They argued that child welfare officials and deputies had previously visited the family and that Gray had been asked to restrict his son’s access to guns. Your job is to decide whether or not Colin Gray knew what was going to do,
Barrow County District Attorney Brad Smith told jurors during opening statements.
Investigators also testified that the teen had a shrine in his bedroom dedicated to Nikolas Cruz, the gunman responsible for the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Evidence presented in court indicated the teen initially planned the attack for the anniversary of the Parkland shooting. The defense countered that the teenager was struggling with mental health issues and hid his intentions from his father and others, arguing that the teen was deceptive and concealed his plans from family members, teachers, and administrators. Several school staff members testified that, prior to the shooting, the teen asked about the school’s last active shooter drill.
Deborah Polhamus, the maternal grandmother of teenage school shooter Colt Gray, testified Friday that the teen’s father Colin Gray bought him an AR-15-style rifle as a Christmas gift nine months before the shooting. Polhamus initially said she did not remember if the firearm was kept in Colt Gray’s room, but she then reviewed her earlier statement to police in which she had said so. So if it says, ‘Every time I went up there I saw it in Colt’s room,’ that would be what you believe to be accurate?
the prosecutor asked. “Yes,” Polhamus said. She also said she gave her grandson money to buy bullets for his birthday after he got Colin Gray’s permission.
Jurors took less than two hours to find Colin Gray guilty of all charges in the September 2024 shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, northeast of Atlanta. Gray is one of a number of parents prosecuted after their children were accused in fatal shootings across the country. Colin Gray was found guilty of second-degree murder in the deaths of two 14-year-old students, Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo. Georgia law defines second-degree murder as causing the death of a child by committing the crime of cruelty to children. Gray was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the killings of teachers Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53. Another teacher and eight other students were wounded. Gray was also convicted of multiple counts of reckless conduct and cruelty to children. He showed little emotion as the verdict was read and then as he watched each juror being polled by the judge. Deputies then handcuffed him behind his back as he stood at the defense table, consulting with his lawyer. He will be sentenced at a later date. Second-degree murder is punishable by at least 10 but no more than 30 years in prison, while involuntary manslaughter carries a penalty of one to 10 years in prison. Some relatives of victims wept as the verdicts were read and declined to comment after court.