Colin Gray, the 55-year-old father of Apalachee High School shooter Colt Gray, was sentenced to 15 years in prison after being convicted on 27 counts, including second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter.
This verdict makes Colin the first parent in American history to be convicted of second-degree murder for providing their child with the weapon used in a mass school shooting. His sentencing came just two days after his now 16-year-old son was handed a life sentence without the possibility of parole for the horrific September 2024 tragedy in Winder, Georgia, that claimed four lives and left nine others wounded.
As previously reported, back in May 2023, local law enforcement visited the Gray home following FBI tips about online mass shooting threats made by the teenager on Discord. Instead of locking down the house and getting his child serious help, Colin went out seven months later and bought his troubled 14-year-old son a SIG Sauer M400 assault-style rifle as an early Christmas gift. Even as his son’s mental health spiraled with severe delusions and obsessing over notorious mass shooters, Colin left the heavy artillery completely accessible in the boy’s bedroom.
On the morning of the attack, the teen literally walked onto his school bus carrying an assault rifle wrapped in poster board, entered Apalachee High School, and opened fire in the hallways, killing 14-year-old students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, alongside teachers Richard Aspinwall and Cristina Irimie.
During the emotional sentencing hearing, the courtroom was filled with raw grief as victims’ families demanded accountability for the preventable slaughter. Breanna Schermerhorn, whose 14-year-old son Mason was stolen away in the attack, delivered a crushing statement that laid bare the reality of parental negligence. “This wasn’t unavoidable. This was preventable. Because of the choices made inside the Gray household, four families were handed life sentences of grief,” she told the court.
Barrow County District Attorney Brad Smith reiterated that sentiment, arguing that Colin deliberately turned a blind eye to obvious danger. “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 stressed.
While Colin’s defense team tried to paint him as a well-meaning dad who simply misjudged his son’s dark online world and sought leniency with a request for probation, Barrow County Superior Court Judge Nicholas Primm was NOT buying it.
Addressing Colin directly before handing down the 15-year prison bid, Judge Primm cut straight to the core of the issue. “It is clear you failed as a parent,” Primm stated bluntly. “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.”
Now, while 15 years in a cell can’t bring back those two young students or those dedicated teachers, this ruling sends a very clear message: if you hand your child a weapon while ignoring sirens of a mental health crisis, you will sit right alongside them in the slammer.