Father of Georgia school shooter sentenced to 15 years in landmark case
Colin Gray was sentenced to 15 years in prison for providing his son a gun that was used in a 2024 mass shooting at a Georgia high school.
Days after a teenager was sentenced to life in prison for killing four people at a Georgia high school in 2024, his father was sentenced to 15 years in prison for providing the gun used in the mass shooting.
Colin Gray, 55, was convicted in March on 27 counts, including second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter, reckless conduct and cruelty to children after less than two hours of deliberations. His son Colt Gray, 16, pleaded guilty to 55 charges, including felony murder, aggravated assault and cruelty to children following the Sept. 4, 2024, shooting at Apalachee High School.
The elder Gray testified during his roughly two-week-long trial that he gave his son the rifle as a Christmas present, but had no idea he was capable of carrying out a mass shooting. “I struggle with it every day,” he said during the emotional testimony.
Meanwhile, prosecutors argued that Colin Gray should have known the danger his son posed. The case was “about who armed Colt and who enabled him to do what he did,” prosecutor Patricia Brooks told jurors in her closing arguments.
Colin Gray’s case marked the first time in Georgia history a parent of a school shooter was charged and convicted in connection with the attack, according to both the prosecution and defense. Judge Nicholas Primm acknowledged the historic and “divisive nature of the case,” before sentencing Colin Gray.
Primm said Colin Gray “failed as a parent” and that it became “more and more obvious that something bad was going to happen” in the lead up to the shooting. Still, Primm said, it was important that Gray did not actually know what his son was planning and didn’t intentionally commit a crime.
“It matters that you didn’t seek to harm anyone,” Primm said. “It matters that you didn’t pull a trigger.”
Colin Gray is not the first parent in the United States to be charged in connection with a school shooting, but the charges he was convicted of and punishment he faced are more severe, thanks in part to a specific and relatively new Georgia law. The most serious charge, second-degree murder, is punishable by up to 30 years in prison in Georgia, less than murder but more than involuntary manslaughter.
While the particular charges will vary case-by-case, legal experts told USA TODAY that his conviction may encourage more prosecutors nationwide to pursue similar cases.
Tumultuous family life preceded mass shooting
During Colt Gray’s sentencing hearing, multiple witnesses testified about the family’s chaotic home life prior to the shooting. Forensic psychologist Kevin Richards said as the family dealt with financial issues and drug use, the teenager grew increasingly isolated, spent most of his time online and eventually joined the community that was “obsessed” with school shooters.
Candice Broce, the head of the Georgia Division of Family and Children Services, said the teen’s parents had an “extensive history” with the agency. Broce said she recently substantiated multiple categories of child abuse and neglect allegations against both parents, including inadequate supervision, domestic violence and lack of psychological care, poisoning and failure to secure a weapon findings against Colin Gray.
During brief but emotional testimony at Colin Gray’s sentencing, family members of the victims blamed him for arming his son and ask the judge to impose the maximum sentence. Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14, and teachers Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53, were killed in the rampage, which sent shock waves through Winder, Georgia, a small town northeast of Atlanta.
Colin Gray declined to speak at his sentencing, and his attorneys called no witness to testify on his behalf. Defense attorney Brian Hobbs argued that Colin Gray would have taken steps to get rid of the weapons, citing a conversation he had with law enforcement prior to the shooting, but Colt Gray and his mother hid the extent of his fascination with mass shooters.
Months before the shooting, Colt Gray was accused of threatening to commit a school shooting online. Officials said they could not definitively confirm the threat was made by Gray’s son, but a sheriff’s deputy urged Colin Gray to keep his guns locked up during a visit to their home.
Hobbs asked the judge to sentence Gray to 20 years, saying that would be comparable to punishment of Jennifer and James Crumbley, the parents of a teenager who killed four of his classmates at a Michigan high school. The Crumbleys were convicted of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to 10 to 15 years in prison.
Hobbs said the minimum sentence is “not leniency,” but rather “among the most severe sentences ever imposed on a parent in American history for the act of a child.”
“We’ve asked the court not to make Georgia an outlier, in this first case of its kind,” Hobbs said.
Meanwhile, Barrow County District Attorney Brad Smith asked the judge to sentence Colin Gray to 80 years in prison. Smith held up images and headlines related to the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School which were displayed on Colt Gray’s wall said the father ignored “a substantial and unjustifiable risk.”
“The mass murder of children is the maximum of risk and for that he deserve the maximum of punishment,” Smith said.
This story has been updated to add new information.