Father of Apalachee mass shooter sentenced to 15 years in prison
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A makeshift memorial to the shooting victims at Apalachee High School. Photo: The Washington Post via Getty Images
The father of a Georgia teen who killed four people and wounded nine others in a 2024 mass shooting at Apalachee High School will spend 15 years in prison in connection with his child's crimes.
The latest: Barrow County Superior Court Judge Nicholas Primm on Thursday sentenced Colin Gray, 55, several months after a trial jury convicted him on more than two dozen charges including second-degree murder.
- Prosecutors had asked the judge to give Gray an 80-year prison term.
- The sentence came two days after Gray's 16-year-old son, Colt, was ordered by Primm to serve life in prison without parole.
Catch up quick: The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said Colt Gray used an AR-style weapon in the Sept. 4, 2024, shooting at the school in Winder.
- The victims were identified as students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14, and math teachers Christina Irimie, 53, and Richard Aspinwall, 39, who was also an assistant football coach.
What they're saying: Primm said Colin Gray was criminally negligent because he saw the warning signs that his son was obsessed with mass shooters.
- He also said Gray "failed as a parent" because he did not enroll his son in school during his eighth-grade year, which allowed him to stay home where he "fell deeper and deeper into his obsession."
- Gray also did not seek mental help for his son, get him involved in age-appropriate activities or monitor his computer use, according to Primm, nor did he secure the guns or remove them from his home.
- "You were convicted because the warning lights were flashing brighter and brighter, and you didn't get him help, and you didn't remove his access to the guns," Primm said.
Ismael "Junior" Angulo, the older brother of Christian Angulo, said Gray chose to "ignore every red flag."
- "And because of his choices, my little brother Christian and three others, Mason, Coach Aspinwall, and Miss [Christina] Irimie are gone, and so many others will carry permanent scars," he said.
The other side: Gray's defense team asked the court to sentence his client to a total of 20 years, 10 of which he would serve behind bars and the rest on probation.
- "Ten years in a Georgia prison for a man who never intended to harm a single human being is among the most severe sentences ever imposed on a parent in American history for the act of a child," Gray's attorney said.
The big picture: Gray's conviction and sentence is the first known case in Georgia, and second in the country, where a parent has been held criminally responsible for a mass shooting committed by their child.
- Michigan couple James and Jennifer Crumbley became the first when they were found guilty of involuntary manslaughter after their son killed four students and wounded seven others in a 2021 shooting at Oxford High School in Oakland County.
- They were sentenced to 10 to 15 years in prison.
What we're watching: Friday is the first day of school for students in Barrow County, and the Apalachee community is focused on healing.
- "As our community enters a new school year, our hearts remain entirely with the families of Mason, Christian, Coach Aspinwall, and Mrs. Irimie," Change for Chee, the student-led organization that formed after the shooting, wrote Thursday on Instagram. "Their strength inspires us, and their legacies will never be forgotten."