{"id":3326,"date":"2026-07-28T20:15:50","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T20:15:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trustedmovinggroups.com\/?p=3326"},"modified":"2026-07-28T20:15:50","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T20:15:50","slug":"apalachee-high-school-shooter-colt-gray-sentenced-to-life-without-parole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trustedmovinggroups.com\/?p=3326","title":{"rendered":"Apalachee High School shooter Colt Gray sentenced to life without parole"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

WINDER, Ga. \u2014<\/strong> The teenager who used the assault-style rifle he got for Christmas to kill two students and two teachers at his Georgia high school will spend the rest of his life in prison.<\/p>\n

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Colt Gray, 16, was sentenced Tuesday to life without parole for the deadly Sept. 4, 2024, shooting at Apalachee High School that also left another teacher and eight more students wounded, seven of them hit by gunfire.<\/p>\n

Barrow County Superior Court Judge Nicholas Primm handed down the sentence days after Gray pleaded guilty to all 55 counts against him, including murder.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

\u201cYou do not seem to be tormented by what you did, you seem to relish following in the footsteps of the murderers you idolize,\u201d Primm told Gray. \u201cYou aren\u2019t wracked with guilt. You\u2019re proud of yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Primm added, \u201cThere\u2019s no joy here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s only a measure of closure,\u201d the judge said. \u201cThe slain will not return to life. The injured will not forget their wounds, and a 16-year-old, 16-year-old boy, will live and die in prison.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gray, who was 14 at the time of the shooting, was charged as an adult. His trial had been scheduled to start in mid-October.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

But Gray entered the plea without having reached a deal with prosecutors. And he declined to address the court at his sentencing hearing Tuesday.<\/p>\n

That left it to the judge to decide whether Gray should be eligible for parole after hearing victim statements and each side\u2019s summary of a case that has loomed large over the Atlanta suburb of Winder.<\/p>\n

Teachers Richard \u201cRicky\u201d Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53, and students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14, died in the shooting.<\/p>\n

Their survivors urged the judge to impose the maximum sentence in victim impact statements delivered in court Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a life sentence of grief and trauma for those left behind,\u201d Aspinwall\u2019s wife, Shayna, told the court. She said their daughters were 2 and 5 when their father was killed and their lives will be \u201cforever marked by his absence.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Breanna Schermerhorn, whose son Mason was killed, said that while Gray may have been failed by the adults in his life, it was his decision to commit mass murder. <\/p>\n

\u201cThose decisions were his and his alone,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Psychologist Kevin Richards, a witness for the defense, described Gray as a \u201clonely, dysfunctional kid\u201d who had a \u201cchaotic\u201d childhood.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought he was kind of an odd kid,\u201d Richards said at the sentencing hearing Monday. <\/p>\n

His parents abused drugs, had financial problems, and fought a lot, Richards said. The family moved frequently and there were long stretches when Gray wasn\u2019t enrolled in school, he said. <\/p>\n

So Gray immersed himself online with the \u201ctrue crime\u201d community and became obsessed with school shootings, Richards said.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Previously, investigators said they found in Colt\u2019s bedroom what they described as a shrine to Nikolas Cruz, who was sentenced to life without parole four years ago for the 2018 shooting at a Florida high school that left 14 students and three staff members dead.<\/p>\n

Gray, investigators said, also became obsessed with the gunmen responsible for 1989 mass shooting in Colorado at Columbine High School and 2012 killings of mostly children at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. <\/p>\n

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Gray was \u201ckind of obsessed\u201d with them, Richards said.<\/p>\n

Ashley Gilleland, an investigator with the Barrow County District Attorney\u2019s Office, testified Tuesday that Gray had more than 2,000 photos of Cruz saved on his phone and more photos of Cruz printed and posted on his bedroom wall.<\/p>\n

Gray, Gilleland said, hoped \u201cto gain some sort of fame or notoriety from\u201d attacking his classmates at school.<\/p>\n

To further buttress that argument, the state played recordings of jail calls between Gray and his mother Marcee Gray from October and November 2024 during which Gray sounded thrilled to be compared to Cruz and other mass killers.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

\u201cI\u2019m in the big leagues, bro,\u201d he said in one call.<\/p>\n

Gray\u2019s grandmother, Debbie Polhamus, testified that her grandson spent long stretches of time with her because his parents were so unstable.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, they always had issues,\u201d Polhamus said. \u201cThey were doing a lot of drinking at that time, and then they got way behind on their bills.\u201d<\/p>\n

Polhamus said Gray\u2019s dad, Colin Gray, kept dozens of guns in the house and not all of them were locked up. She said he bought the Gray the gun he used to attack his classmates in order to bond with his son. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe really wanted to find something that they could do together,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Colin Gray was convicted by a jury in March on charges including second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter for giving his son what turned out to be a multiple murder weapon. <\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Just before 10 a.m. on the day of the shooting, Gray told his second-period teacher that he needed to see a crisis counselor but instead went to a bathroom to get ready to attack the school, police said.<\/p>\n

When he was unable to re-enter his classroom, Gray marched down the hall to another classroom and opened fire and also shot at other people in the hallway, police said. <\/p>\n

Gray surrendered to law enforcement officers, and prosecutors played a recording of his interview with investigators during which he sobbed hysterically and repeatedly apologized, calling what he did \u201chorrible\u201d and \u201cthe worst nightmare for everyone involved.\u201d<\/p>\n

The teenager also described having uncontrollable urges and said he was supposed to see a doctor. \u201cI was so close to getting the help I need and the medication I need,\u201d he told investigators.<\/p>\n

But Gray, prosecutors said, had methodically planned the school shooting, and investigators described finding a notebook in which the teen detailed a step-by-step plan on how he would get himself ready in the bathroom.<\/p>\n

It also came out in the pre-trial investigation that sheriff\u2019s deputies had interviewed Colt and Colin Gray in May 2023 about an online threat linked to the son. Colt Gray denied making the threat.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

During Colin Gray\u2019s trial, an investigator testified that he had sought help for his son from a counseling service weeks before the school shooting but failed to follow through.<\/p>\n

Marcee Gray, who was separated from Colin Gray, told investigators she had urged her husband weeks before the shooting to secure his guns and restrict their son\u2019s access to them. <\/p>\n

Over time, Colin Gray bought the teenager ammunition, a gun sight and other shooting accessories, court records show.<\/p>\n

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Dan Gallo reported from Winder, GA and Corky Siemaszko reported from New York.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WINDER, Ga. \u2014 The teenager who used the assault-style rifle he got for Christmas to kill two students and two teachers at his Georgia high school will spend the rest of his life in prison.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3325,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guns-in-america"],"yoast_head":"\nApalachee High School shooter Colt Gray sentenced to life without parole - Trusted Moving Group<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/trustedmovinggroups.com\/?p=3326\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Apalachee High School shooter Colt Gray sentenced to life without parole - 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