Colin Gray, the father of the teenager accused in the Sept. 2024 mass shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, northeast of Atlanta, was convicted on March 3 of killing-related charges after jurors returned a verdict that they read as guilty on all counts. The jury’s deliberations lasted less than two hours, according to the trial proceedings described by the Associated Press.
The convictions included second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter in the deaths tied to the shooting, with the jury also convicting Gray of multiple counts of reckless conduct and cruelty to children. Deputies cuffed Gray’s hands behind his back as the verdict was read, and the AP reported that Gray showed little emotion while jurors were polled.
In court, jurors found Gray responsible for second-degree murder in the deaths of Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both described as 14-year-old students, and the conviction rested on Georgia’s definition of second-degree murder as causing the death of a child by committing the crime of cruelty to children. The same verdict also included involuntary manslaughter convictions tied to the deaths of two teachers: Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53.
Additional victims were injured in the attack, including another teacher and eight other students who were wounded, the AP reported. Gray will be sentenced at a later date, with the AP citing sentencing ranges that distinguish the second-degree murder count—punishable by at least 10 and no more than 30 years—from involuntary manslaughter—punishable by one to 10 years.
After the verdict, Barrow County District Attorney Brad Smith told reporters that “We talk a lot about rights in our country,” adding that “God gave us a duty to protect our children,” and that parents and community members must remember “our God-given duty” to protect children. Prosecutors argued that Gray had warning about his son’s risk and nonetheless permitted access to the weapon.
The teenager at the center of the case, Colt Gray, has pleaded not guilty to 55 counts, including murder, according to the AP report. A judge has set a status hearing for mid-March, and prosecutors described the shooting as carefully planned for Sept. 4, 2024. Investigators said Colt Gray boarded a school bus with a semiautomatic, assault-style rifle in his book bag with the barrel sticking out and wrapped in poster board, then left his second-period class, emerged from a bathroom with the gun, and shot people in a classroom and hallways.
Prosecutors told the jury that Colin Gray gave the gun to his son as a Christmas gift and allowed access to it along with ammunition despite what they described as the boy’s deteriorating mental health. They also said he had “sufficient warning that Colt Gray would harm and endanger” other people, while also citing the teen’s fixation on school shooters, including a shrine in his bedroom to Nikolas Cruz, the shooter in the 2018 massacre at Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
The AP reported that some relatives of the victims wept as verdicts were read, and that they declined to comment after court. Gray’s defense lawyers left without speaking to reporters.
In the aftermath of the case, Smith also drew comparisons to Michigan, where prosecutors previously held parents Jennifer and James Crumbley criminally responsible for the mass shooting their son Ethan carried out in 2021. Smith said Michigan’s case helped prompt a shift, and he told reporters that he hoped prosecutors had “moved the needle a little further,” after describing that Colin Gray’s estranged partner, Marcee Gray, was not charged and testified that she urged her husband to take any guns and lock them in his truck so they would not be accessible to their son.
Marcee Gray testified that she and Colin Gray separated in the months leading up to the shooting and that Colt Gray lived mostly with his father during that time. She declined to comment after the verdict when reached by phone, the AP said.
Georgia’s convictions come as lawmakers have already acted in the wake of shootings, including the Sept. 2024 attack in Winder. The AP reported that Georgia legislators last year passed a school safety bill directing state officials to create an alert system, requiring law enforcement to notify schools when officers learn a child has threatened death or injury to someone at a school, and adding provisions such as mobile panic alert buttons, faster record transfers when students switch schools, and mental health coordinators in each of the state’s 180 school districts. Lawmakers also approved an additional $50 million for school safety after Gov. Brian Kemp requested the funding.