Colin Gray plans to take the stand in his own trial on Friday, defense attorneys told the court late Thursday. It was a day of testimony in which prosecutors contended Colin Gray spent money on guns and weapon accessories for his school-shooting-obsessed son even as the family apparently struggled for funds.
Before dismissing court for the day, Barrow County Superior Court Judge Nicholas Primm told Colin Gray that nobody can force him to testify, and that the judge would ask him first thing Friday morning if he still intended to take the stand.
The last time the court heard directly from Gray was during a pretrial hearing in his case, during which he was granted bond. He hasn’t made bail and has continued to be incarcerated as the case proceeds, court records show.
The announcement by defense attorneys came late Thursday after the jury had been dismissed for the day and prosecutors had concluded presenting evidence against Gray.
The father is accused of knowingly allowing his son, Colt Gray, access to guns and ammunition “after receiving sufficient warning that Colt Gray would harm and endanger the bodily safety of another” and of causing “with criminal negligence” the death of the four victims in the Apalachee High School shooting.
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Prosecutors spent most of Thursday showing records, photographs and text messages of the months, weeks and days leading up to the fatal shooting in September 2024.
Colin Gray has pleaded not guilty to 29 counts of second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter, reckless conduct and child cruelty in connection with the shooting. He is the first Georgia parent criminally charged in association with a mass school shooting that their child is accused of committing.
In the only other case like it in the U.S. to have proceeded to trial, the parents of a Michigan school shooter were convicted of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to at least 10 years in prison.
Colt Gray, 14 at the time of the shooting, is separately being prosecuted and is yet to stand trial. He has pleaded not guilty to 55 charges of malice and felony murder, aggravated battery, child cruelty and aggravated assault.
Christian Angulo and Mason Schermerhorn, both 14-year-old students, and teachers Cristina Irimie and Richard Aspinwall were killed in the shooting.
According to Colin Gray’s financial records shown to the jury, he made a number of purchases on Amazon and at Academy Sports and Outdoors for ammunition, sights and other weapon attachments for the SIG Sauer M400 he gifted his son for Christmas. The rifle was purchased by Colin Gray from Mike’s Gun Room in Winder, Georgia.
He originally paid $350 on Nov. 11, 2023, and later paid an additional $559.50 on Nov. 17 for the SIG Sauer M400. Barrow County District Attorney Investigator Ashley Gilleland testified that the $350 is consistent with a normal down payment for a rifle.
A firearms transaction record, signed by Colin Gray on Nov. 17, 2023, contains the serial number on the weapon recovered after the shooting on Sept. 4, 2024, prosecutors said. The transaction record also contained a warning about the Gun Control Act, which requires gun buyers to be at least 18 years of age to purchase a rifle, and to purchase the gun only for their own use.
Throughout 2024, the father purchased a sight mark, a bungee sling, a box of 20 rounds of ammunition, a cleaning kit, and a knife from Academy Sports. He also purchased a tactical vest, a gun laser sight, a flashlight laser combo, an accessory rail set, a bore sight laser, and an optic iron sight from Amazon. He spent more than $600 on the gear, prosecutors said.
The jury was also shown a photo of the boy with his grandmother, Deborah Polhamus, holding four magazines of ammunition for the gun.
Gilleland said some of those purchases — including the sight mark, one of the magazines, the optic iron sight, the bore sight laser and some of the ammunition — were found attached to the gun recovered by investigators after the shooting.
Photographs obtained from Colt Gray’s phone showed the teen posing for pictures with the tactical vest, the weapon and the attachments. Other photographs obtained from his sister’s phone showed the two and Colin Gray going to a gun range at least two separate times during school hours in February and March 2024, with Colt Gray being shown holding the gun.
In the months before the shooting, Colin Gray, at times, would search online for gun safes but never purchased any, Gilleland testified. Earlier in the trial, the jury was shown footage of his interview with law enforcement in which he said he didn’t have the funds to cover the cost of the safe.
Credit: Jason Getz/AJC
Credit: Jason Getz/AJC
At the same time he was making the gun-related purchases, Colin Gray also sent messages to Polhamus, his mother-in-law, and his sister asking for financial help. In one message to Polhamus, Colin Gray said he had to sell both of his firearms to pay for car insurance and food.
Prosecutors have shown images taken from the Gray’s home showing guns found in Colin Gray’s closet.
The text messages also hinted at strife between father and son.
“Colt, when it comes to u, & if u need something, if I can do it, I will do it. But if I cannot, then I can’t do it. – and that’s when I need you to be OK with it," Colin told Colt in a text message. “Knowing that as soon as I can, I will. At the end of the day being disrespectful, and flat out being mean and ugly doesn’t do anything.”
Jurors were also shown a message Colin Gray sent to a counseling clinic asking for help for Colt. When the mental health facility followed up multiple times, he never responded, Gilleland testified.
Prosecutors also showed jurors surveillance footage from the morning of the shooting inside the school that allegedly showed Colt Gray carrying out the deadly attack. The footage, which the media was not allowed to record, prompted an emotional response from Colin Gray, who began crying from his seat on the defense table.
The boy’s sister testified earlier in the case that he had been bullied at school, and that the family knew about his interest in school shooters, including Nikolas Cruz, the convicted perpetrator of the mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida.
Colin Gray’s attorney Brian Hobbs read a text message exchange between Colt Gray and his mother, Marcee Gray, in which he tells her he sent money and letters to Cruz in prison. “LOL awesome,” she texted back.
She told the jury earlier in the trial that she thought her son’s interest in school shooters was a normal curiosity, akin to being a fan of true crime stories.
In addition to the surveillance footage of the morning of the shooting, the jury was shown a series of text messages Colt sent to his parents that day.
Early that morning, the boy reached out to his dad saying he would text him in an hour, and that he would need an immediate answer. Colin Gray asked his son if he was OK, and he said yes. At 8:34 a.m., Colin Gray texted his son that he hoped he would have a great day.
At 9:42 a.m., Colt Gray texted his dad, “I’m sorry. It’s not ur fault.”
“What’s wrong Bubba? U didn’t do anything??” the father replied.
At 10:23 a.m., Colin Gray sent a text to Colt Gray asking him to call him and to let him know he was OK, offering to pick him up from school and take him out to lunch.
“We just go somewhere and kind of chill and relax. Let’s get through today. We’ll figure out what we gotta do tomorrow please will you please call me,” the text said.
However, it was too late. Colt Gray had already allegedly opened fire inside the school one minute before, at 10:22 a.m.
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