A sentencing hearing was underway Thursday for a man who gave his son the gun used to kill two students and two teachers at Apalachee High School in Georgia after he was convicted of second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter. Colin Gray’s sentencing comes just days after his 16-year-old son, Colt Gray, pleaded guilty to murder and other charges in the Sept. 4, 2024, shooting at the school about 45 miles (70 kilometres) northeast of Atlanta. Colt Gray was sentenced to serve life in prison without the possibility of parole. His father 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. Second-degree murder is punishable by at least 10 years but no more than 30 years in prison, while involuntary manslaughter carries a penalty of one to 10 years in prison. Colin Gray was also convicted of multiple counts of reckless conduct and cruelty to children. Families provide victim impact statements The sentencing hearing began with statements from family members of those who died and victims of the shooting. Many of them condemned what they said were Gray’s failures as a parent and urged the judge to give him the maximum sentence possible. “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 Mason was killed. Prosecutors say Colin Gray gave his son the rifle as a Christmas gift along with ammunition, a gun sight and other shooting accessories. Barrow County Sheriff’s Office Investigator Jason Smith 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 during his sentencing hearing. He also had more than a dozen photos of Nikolas Cruz -- the shooter in the 2018 massacre at Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School -- on his bedroom wall, an investigator testified. How the spotlight turned to the shooter’s father The teen’s mother, Marcee Gray, who was separated from Colin Gray, told investigators that she had argued with her estranged husband weeks before the shooting, asking him to secure his guns and restrict their son’s access. In interviews with investigators on the day of the shooting, Colt Gray falsely said his father had made efforts to hide the gun from him, but investigations showed the gun was stored in the teenager’s bedroom, Smith said. Prosecutors have in recent years held some 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. Barrow County District Attorney Brad Smith told reporters after Colt Gray’s sentencing that the father was the only parent who could appropriately be charged in the Georgia shooting, citing Marcee Gray’s limited contact with her son in the years preceding the shooting. Prosecutors played recordings during the teenager’s sentencing hearing of phone calls between Marcee Gray and her son while he was in custody in the months following the shooting. They discussed his online notoriety, and Marcee Gray told her son she’d bring him printouts of “fan art” posted online, describing the images as “extremely cute” and “awesome.” Smith called Marcee Gray “disgusting” and said her “actions are contemptible,” but he didn’t find cause to bring charges. Kate Brumback, The Associated Press
