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A man who gave his son the gun he used to kill two students and two teachers at Apalachee High School in Georgia was sentenced Thursday to 15 years in prison.
Colin Gray’s sentencing comes days after his son, Colt Gray, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in the Sept. 4, 2024, shooting at the school 45 miles (70 kilometers) northeast of Atlanta. Colt Gray, 16, had pleaded guilty to murder and other charges.
Judge Nicholas Primm, who also sentenced Colt Gray, was blunt in addressing the elder Gray: “It is clear you failed as a parent.” But he said punishing crimes of negligence is particularly difficult because there was no intent to commit a crime.
“My heart aches for everyone that was there that day, for all of you that have been impacted by it. But the law requires that I set aside emotion. I don’t get to sentence with passion. I have the nearly impossible task of sentencing you without passion despite the immeasurable heartache that you caused,” Primm said.
Gray, 55, is one of a handful of American parents who have been criminally charged after their children were accused in shootings.
A jury in March found Colin Gray guilty of second-degree murder in the deaths of two 14-year-old students, Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo. Georgia law defines second-degree murder as causing the death of a child by committing the crime of cruelty to children. Gray was also found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the killings of teachers Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53.
Another teacher and eight other students were wounded, seven of them hit by gunfire.
Families speak their pain
Family members of those who died and victims of the shooting, many of whom also spoke during Colt Gray’s sentencing, condemned what they said were Colin Gray’s failures as a parent and urged the judge to give him the maximum sentence.
“This wasn’t unavoidable. This was preventable. Because of the choices made inside the Gray household, four families were handed life sentences of grief,” said Breanna Schermerhorn, whose son was killed.
“He did not pull the trigger but purchased and left a firearm accessible to a minor,” said Shayna Aspinwall, whose husband was killed. She said the sentence must take into account “the families left behind who must carry the grief and trauma for the rest of our lives.”
The judge addressed those in the courtroom after announcing the sentence: “This only closes the legal chapter for this horror. The pain, the heartache, they continue. I understand that. I hope all of you know this community loves you, and I ask that God gives you peace.”
Prosecutors said Colin Gray missed red flags
Prosecutors said Colin Gray gave his son the rifle as a Christmas gift along with ammunition, a gun sight and other shooting accessories.
An investigator testified that Colt Gray carried the semiautomatic rifle onto the school bus with the barrel sticking out and wrapped in poster board. The teenager left his second-period class and went to a bathroom, emerged with the rifle and shot people in the hallway and a classroom, the investigator said.
Colt Gray, who was 14 at the time of the shooting, had shown signs of deteriorating mental health in the weeks leading up to the killings, according to testimony. He belonged to a “true crime community” online where he and other young people discussed their obsession with mass shooters, an investigator testified.
The teen’s mother, Marcee Gray, who was separated from Colin Gray, told investigators she had argued with her estranged husband weeks before the shooting, asking him to secure his guns and restrict their son’s access.
Prosecutors had asked for a sentence of 80 years
Defense attorney Brian Hobbs asked the judge for a sentence of 10 years in prison followed by 10 years on probation. Barrow County District Attorney Brad Smith said Gray deserved a sentence of 80 years in prison.
Hobbs argued that Colt Gray “actively hid the depth of his involvement” in the online community obsessed with mass shooters, and the red flags enumerated by prosecutors were outliers among happier moments.
Smith countered that Colin Gray ignored “a substantial and unjustifiable risk.”
“This was the risk that he was ignoring, that there would be a mass shooting of children at a school, and he gave his son the exact tool he would need to accomplish this,” Smith said.
Colin Gray is not the first parent to face such charges
Prosecutors have in recent years held parents responsible when they believe they can prove a parent contributed to a killing.
Jennifer and James Crumbley were the first U.S. parents to face such charges after their son, Ethan, killed four students and wounded others at Michigan’s Oxford High School in 2021. Like Colin Gray, they were unaware of their son’s plans but had gifted him a gun before the shooting. They are serving 10-year prison terms for involuntary manslaughter. Hobbs, the defense attorney, urged the judge to use that sentence as a guide.
The judge called these cases “divisive.” There would have been no crime by the father if the son hadn’t brought a gun to school and shot people, he noted. But he said Colin Gray could have locked up the guns, kept ammunition out of the house, had someone else keep the guns and gotten his son counseling.
“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.
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