Apalachee High shooter’s dad gets 15 years in prison

He said it’s a divisive case in which Colin Gray ignored foreseeable harm and failed to intervene.

“It’s clear you failed as a parent,” the judge said. “It became more and more obvious that something bad was going to happen. At a minimum, you should have believed that Colt would commit suicide. And you failed to do the simplest things to prevent this.”

Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC

Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC

The judge said the negligence by Colin Gray’s father was repeated day after day as “the warning lights were flashing brighter and brighter.”

He said but for the father’s failures, the day of the shooting would have been a normal day and the two students and two teachers killed would have gone home to their families.

“My heart aches for everyone who was there that day, for all of you who have been impacted by it,” Primm said.

Colin Gray was accused of ignoring his teenage son’s obsession with school shooters and buying him the gun and associated gear used in the shooting that killed four in Barrow County on Sept. 4, 2024. The father was found guilty in early March of 29 charges, including second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter and cruelty to children.

Prosecutors had sought an 80-year prison term for Colin Gray, whose lawyers said he shouldn’t spend more than 10 years behind bars.

Speaking to reporters outside the courtroom after the sentencing, the Barrow County district attorney encouraged members of the community not to suffer alone.

“If you need help, if you need some sort of counseling or just a loving hand, please reach out,” he said.

Colt Gray, 14 at the time of the shooting, pleaded guilty Friday to 55 felony counts, including malice murder, after his trial was scheduled for October. The now 16-year-old was sentenced Tuesday by Primm, who rejected the defense team’s notion the teen deserved the hope of one day being free from custody.

“The slain will not return to life, the injured will not forget their wounds, and a 16-year-old boy will live and die in prison,” Primm said when sentencing the younger Gray.

Credit: Arvin Temkar/Pool Atlanta Journa

Credit: Arvin Temkar/Pool Atlanta Journa

The teen’s father was sentenced by the same judge Thursday on two counts of murder in the second degree, two counts of involuntary manslaughter, five counts of reckless conduct and 20 counts of cruelty to children in the second degree.

Colin Gray did not speak at his sentencing, on the advice of his lawyers, who told reporters they plan to appeal his conviction.

There were 25 victims in the shooting, including 15 children who were inside a classroom when Colt Gray fired shots, according to his indictment. It shows at least eight people were shot, including the four who died, as well as three children who were wounded.

Christian Angulo and Mason Schermerhorn, both 14, and teachers Ana Cristina Irimie and Richard Aspinwall were killed.

Credit: Jason Getz/AJC

Credit: Jason Getz/AJC

Novel case brings wide sentencing range

The maximum sentence Colin Gray faced was 243 years in prison, prosecutors said. The minimum sentence was 10 years on probation.

His lawyers asked that he be sentenced to 10 years in prison and 10 years on probation.

Defense attorney Brian Hobbs said Colin Gray did not know his son was planning the shooting. He said the teen accelerated the attack because his father was trying to get him mental health treatment.

“This was a father who was trying,” Hobbs said in court Thursday. “This was not an absent father.”

Hobbs said Colt Gray’s fascination with school shootings and the “true-crime community” was kept from Colin Gray, who believed hunting with his son would help the teen.

“What he knew was that Colt was a struggling adolescent,” Hobbs said, adding that Colin Gray accepts the jury’s finding of criminal negligence.

Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com

Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com

Barrow County District Attorney Brad Smith said Colin Gray was warned by law enforcement in 2023 that he needed to restrict his son’s access to guns. Months later, the father bought the boy a high-powered rifle, Smith said.

He said Colin Gray ignored many other obvious red flags and has shown no remorse since the shooting, and that he asked his daughter to lie to investigators in the immediate aftermath. Smith asked that Colin Gray be sentenced to 80 years in prison.

Dysfunctional family examined at trial

At his trial earlier this year, Colin Gray testified he was trying to be a good father in a broken home and never imagined his son, “a good kid,” would carry out the attack.

“Could I have done better? Yes, I could have done more,” he said in front of the jury. “I see that now.”

Colin Gray’s daughter, the younger sister of Colt Gray, also testified at the trial. She said she and her father guessed when they heard about the shooting that Colt Gray was the perpetrator.

The father’s attorneys told the jurors he tried to get his son mental health treatment and was preparing to admit him into a facility in the days leading up to the shooting.

But prosecutors said Colin Gray and his estranged wife, Marcee Gray, neglected to address their son’s alarming behavior for years. The SIG Sauer M400 rifle Colt Gray used in the shooting was a Christmas present from his father, who had custody of the couple’s children.

Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC

Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC

Marcee Gray, who has a lengthy criminal record but was not charged over the shooting, testified at the trial she was concerned about their son’s access to guns and ammunition while he was living with his father in Winder.

Colin Gray testified that hunting was one of the ways he bonded with his son.

The teenager had been attending Apalachee High School for about a month before the shooting. He told investigators he shot at random, not targeting anyone in particular.

Grief continues for victims and their families

Several of the victims’ relatives spoke at Colin Gray’s sentencing Thursday, as well as one of the students shot by his son. The student, who is still a minor, said she thinks about the attack every day.

“I don’t understand how a parent can fail that much,” she said.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is not naming the student because of her age.

Shayna Aspinwall, the widow of math teacher and football coach Richard “Ricky” Aspinwall, said Colin Gray is “a pathetic excuse for a father.”

“He was a single parent by choice,” she said. “I am now a solo parent because of his actions and lack of parenting.”

Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC

Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC

Ansleigh Gossett, Richard Aspinwall’s sister, said words cannot express the “extreme sadness” her family and the families of the other victims have experienced because of Colin Gray’s “irresponsible parenting.”

“I feel like this man deserves the maximum sentence possible and should never have the chance of freedom again,” she said.

Breanna Schermerhorn, whose 14-year-old son, Mason, was killed in the shooting, said Colin Gray turned a blind eye to repeated warnings that his son was in crisis and needed help. Instead of intervening, the father chose to look away, she said.

“He armed him,” she said. “That wasn’t an accident. That wasn’t bad luck. That wasn’t simply poor judgment. That was a choice.”

Ismael “Junior” Angulo, the older brother of Christian Angulo, asked for Colin Gray to be sentenced to the maximum time in prison possible, calling him “a complete failure of a father.”

“He made a choice to buy that rifle,” he said. “He made a choice to ignore every red flag. A parent’s negligence shouldn’t cost innocent children their lives.”