Apalachee shooting suspect’s dad convicted in ‘novel’ case

“It wasn’t like one parent missed one warning. This was multiple warnings over a lengthy period of time,” Barrow County District Attorney Brad Smith told reporters after the landmark Georgia verdict. “You just had to do one thing: take that rifle away and this would have been prevented.”

Credit: Abbey Cutrer/AJC

Credit: Abbey Cutrer/AJC

Gray said he bought his teenage son the rifle for Christmas, hoping it would bring them closer together. But authorities said Colin Gray ignored a series of red flags leading up to the shooting that killed two teachers and two students inside Apalachee High School.

The trial was one of the first in the nation in which a parent was held accountable for allegedly enabling a child’s access to a gun used in a school shooting.

In the only other case like it to have proceeded to trial, the parents of a Michigan school shooter were each convicted of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to prison.

Credit: Abbey Cutrer/AJC

Credit: Abbey Cutrer/AJC

Tensions ran high in the third-floor courtroom as each guilty verdict was read aloud Tuesday morning. The parents of a slain 14-year-old sobbed on a courtroom bench, their hands clasped tightly as they leaned against each other.

Behind them, observers were seen wiping tears from their eyes. Gray, seated next to his defense attorney, stared straight ahead, clenching his jaw as he was convicted of each of the 27 counts he faced.

Joshua Schiffer, a criminal defense attorney who followed the case from the beginning, said he was shocked by how quickly the jury returned with its verdict.

“It sends a clear message when a jury returns a verdict so quickly,” Schiffer said, especially given the number of charges they were asked to consider. “It’s just an utter approval of the state’s theory.”

Colin Gray’s two second-degree murder charges were predicated on two child cruelty counts, one for each of the two 14-year-olds killed that morning at school.

“This was a novel prosecution that clearly landed comfortably with the jury,” said Schiffer, who was not involved in the trial.

After the guilty verdict, Gray was handcuffed and led from the courtroom. Some of the victims’ parents embraced the county sheriff on their way out.

Gray knew 14-year-old Colt Gray had become infatuated with school shooters, prosecutors contended at trial.

He had seen what investigators described as a “shrine” to Nikolas Cruz, who was convicted of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, they said. That shooting, which killed 17 people and injured at least 17 others, is the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history.

Still, Colin Gray allowed the teen to keep the rifle in his bedroom, relatives said. Authorities argued the boy had “unfettered access” to the weapon and ammunition allegedly used to carry out the Sept. 4, 2024, shooting.

Sentencing for the 55-year-old will be held later, the judge said.

In charging the dad, legal observers said Smith was forced to straddle a fine line between Second Amendment gun rights and parental responsibility in his mostly conservative county.

“We talk a lot about rights in our country. We’re proud of our rights and I’m proud of our rights,” Smith said. “But God gave us a duty to protect our children and I hope that we remember that.”

Credit: Jason Getz/AJC

Credit: Jason Getz/AJC

Colin Gray was the only person who could have prevented the tragedy, prosecutor Patricia Brooks said Monday in her closing arguments.

Instead, he “ensured Colt Gray had the tools he needed to commit mass murder,” she said, calling the father “the only person who knew what Colt was capable of.”

Those killed were two students — Christian Angulo and Mason Schermerhorn — and two teachers — Cristina Irimie and Richard Aspinwall. Nine others were injured.

Credit: Courtesy photos

Credit: Courtesy photos

Tony Montalto, the father of one of the 17 people killed in the 2018 mass shooting in Parkland, called Tuesday’s verdict “an important moment of accountability.”

“No verdict can restore the lives that were taken, but holding adults responsible when their actions contribute to preventable school violence sends a clear message: firearm ownership comes with an obligation to act responsibly and to heed warning signs before tragedy strikes,” Montalto, whose 14-year-old daughter, Gina, was among those killed in the Parkland shooting, said in a statement about the Gray trial.

Over the years, social workers and school counselors had urged Colin Gray to get counseling for his son, according to testimony heard during the trial. Marcee Gray, Colin’s estranged wife and Colt’s mother, asked Colin to take the guns away while the couple tried to find help for their son, she told the jury.

Colt Gray’s younger sister testified that everyone knew about her brother’s obsession with school shooters, but that her parents did nothing to intervene.

Smith said he knew shortly after the shooting that he had to charge Colin Gray.

“How do you allow those pictures on your child’s wall and not question it further?” the DA asked Tuesday. “This was a trial about this defendant’s actions, his choices and his responsibility.”

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

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

He noted that Jackson County investigators had visited the family’s former home in 2023, where they questioned Colt and his father about a school shooting threat made online but ultimately took no action. A few months later, Colin bought Gray the rifle as a Christmas gift.

Both Marcee and Colin testified that they were discussing mental health help for their son in the months leading up to the shooting. Marcee said she’d wanted to put her son in inpatient care, that she felt he needed significant help.

Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC

Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC

But Colin resisted that idea, he told the jury when he took the stand in his own defense. On the stand, he said he was trying hard to raise three children on his own after separating from their mother.

Colin Gray said he felt he could break through to his son by bonding with him, and opted to sign Colt up for counseling at school instead.

Colt’s first appointment with the counselor was set for Sept. 5, 2024, the day before the shooting.

Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC

Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC

“He’s a good kid,” Colin Gray said Friday as he began to cry on the witness stand. “He wasn’t perfect, nor was I. But how he could do something that heinous, I don’t know if anybody could see that kind of evil. There was a whole other side of Colt that I never knew existed.”

When Barrow County deputies showed up in his driveway about two hours after the shooting, Colin already suspected his son was involved.

“God! I knew it, man,” Colin is heard telling deputies in body camera footage that was shown to the jury. He had received ominous texts from both Colt and his daughter that morning, prosecutors showed.

Colt Gray, investigators said, boarded the school bus that morning with his gun in his backpack. He used a poster board to conceal the barrel of the rifle.

Colt, now 16, has yet to be tried. He faces 55 charges related to the Apalachee shooting, including murder and aggravated assault. He has pleaded not guilty, and the judge overseeing both cases placed hearings in Colt’s case on hold until his father’s trial was complete.

Smith thanked the jurors, who were bused in from neighboring Hall County for more than two weeks for the high-profile case. He said he’s hopeful Tuesday’s verdict “helps start the healing process.”