In a landmark case in Georgia, a jury swiftly handed down a verdict on Tuesday, finding Colin Gray guilty on all charges, including two counts of second-degree murder. The decision came after the jury deliberated for less than two hours, marking the conclusion of a significant trial involving the parent of a suspected school shooter.
This case gained widespread attention as it involved Colin Gray, the father of Colt Gray, who is accused of carrying out a deadly shooting at Apalachee High School. The tragic event claimed the lives of two students, Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, as well as two teachers, Cristina Irimie and Richard Aspinwall. Additionally, several other individuals were injured during the incident.
Central to the prosecution’s argument was the assertion that Colin Gray had ample warning about his son’s potential for violence. Prosecutors argued that Gray’s actions were criminally negligent, particularly in allowing his son access to firearms. Notably, the weapon used in the shooting had been given to Colt as a Christmas gift, which prosecutors highlighted as a critical point of negligence.
Ultimately, the jury found Colin Gray guilty on all 27 counts. However, counts 9 and 21 were vacated, as two victims did not provide testimony during the trial. This case sets a precedent in holding parents accountable in situations where their negligence may contribute to such tragic events.
He was convicted on all 27 counts he faced.
Full Colin Gray Verdict
- Count 1: Murder in the second degree – GULTY
- Count 2: Cruelty to children second-degree – GULTY
- Count 3: Murder in the second degree – GULTY
- Count 4: Cruelty to children in the second-degree – GULTY
- Count 5: Involuntary manslaughter – GULTY
- Count 6: Reckless conduct – GULTY
- Count 7: Involuntary manslaughter – GULTY
- Count 8: Reckless conduct – GULTY
- Counts 10-20 and 22-26: Cruelty to children in the second-degree – GULTY
- Count 27-29: Reckless conduct – GULTY
Counts 9 and 21 were vacated as two victims did not testify at the trial.
Among the trial’s most pivotal moments was Colin Gray’s daughter testifying against him, saying she felt pressured to cover for him when she was interviewed by investigators the day after the shooting, and Colin taking the stand in his own defense.
After multiple emotional breakdowns during both his own testimony and during the showing of video of the shooting during trial, Colin Gray largely did not react as the unanimous guilty verdict was read against him.
More on the trial proceedings
Closing arguments were Monday. In those presentations, the prosecution laid out to the jury their contention that Colin Gray was criminally negligent in giving his troubled son, 14 at the time of the shooting, access to firearms.
“He is charged with these crimes because he shares the blame. Think about it this way — our children do risky things all the time, for example a 16-year-old driving a car is inherently risky. But parents let their children drive because it’s a justifiable risk. A parent does not commit a crime if their 16-year-old gets in a car accident and kills somebody. However, if you give your 16-year-old a six-pack of beer, watch him drink it, see him fall over the place, help him up — then him driving, that’s become an unjustifiable risk. If you disregard that risk and give your child the keys to the car, and watch him drive off, and then he kills someone? Then yes, your actions combined with your knowledge are criminally negligent and they’re reckless and you’re guilty of murder in the second degree or involuntary manslaughter, depending on the age of the victim. But that’s because of the parent’s own actions, not just because their child did something.
“After seeing sign after sign of his son’s deteriorating mental state, his violence, his school shooter obsession, the defendant had sufficient warning that his son was a bomb just waiting to go off. And instead of disarming him, he gave him the detonator.”
The defense, meanwhile, made the argument that there was no way for Colin Gray to see flash points across a yearslong timeline — which the defense characterized as dots he should have connected — adding up to warning signs of a school shooting. They further argued both school officials on the day of the shooting and other family members in the days and weeks leading into it didn’t see Colt’s troublesome signs through the prism of him posing a serious risk to commit a school shooting.
“They’re going to have to show that this was an anticipated and a reasonably foreseen incident, on the part of Colin Gray. Well, who would be able to foresee that a 14-year-old is going to take a rifle, as big as it is, as heavy as it is, and stick it in a book bag, get on a bus, come to school, walk down the hall, go to class, put it down on the floor and not one single person sees it? How foreseeable is that?”
The defense attorney further stated: “You also heard on the 26th, Colt text Debbie (his grandmother) and says if I do something bad will you still love me? And of course she text back and said sure. You know what? She never told Colin that. This is one of the problems, things happen and nobody tells him. How is he supposed to get this? Through osmosis? People don’t tell him things, how is he gonna know.”
In its response to the defense closing statement, prosecutors maintained the “connecting the dots” argument: The only person who knew every single dot, the only person who knew how much access Colt had to firearms and ammunition, is that man. And the only person who knew exactly what Colt was capable of, is the defendant. He was the one person who could have connected all the dots that pointed exactly at what Colt was gonna do. And he was the one person who could’ve simply taken the rifle away — and he never did.
“The individuals at the school only had minutes to connect the dots. The defendant had years and he did nothing.”
Full arguments
The initial prosecution closing statement is below (the prosecution is allowed to begin, then the defense goes, then the prosecution again closes with a lengthier response):
The full defense closing statement is below:
Below are the final moments from the prosecution:
On Friday, Colin was asked if he ever saw red flags with Colt “or anything that would make you believe that he would ever be capable of doing this act?” He broke down in his response.
“No, I struggle with it every day. I’d never seen that video (inside the school during the shooting) until yesterday, you know, he’s a… he’s a good kid, you know, he wasn’t perfect, nor was I, but to do something that heinous — like I don’t, I don’t know if anybody could ever see that kind of evil, like the Colt I knew and relationship I had, there’s this whole other side of Colt I didn’t know existed. So, no.”
“Was everything you did for Colt, did you try to placate him and make him okay?”
“I did, I just wanted him okay.”
In the afternoon, the prosecution attacked Gray’s consistency in answers and narrative across the last two weeks of the trial.
That included a particularly tense moment where Colin appeared to acknowledge an inconsistency in whether he knew who Nicholas Cruz was – saying at points he thought the 2018 Parkland shooter, whom Colt had a tribute board or “shrine” of pictures and news articles on a poster in his room – might be a music figure or the son of a member of Green Day.
