WINDER, Ga. (AP) — A 16-year-old accused in the deadly mass shooting at Apalachee High School in Georgia has pleaded guilty to all 55 charges against him, bringing a major turn in a case that devastated the community nearly two years ago.
Colt Gray entered the guilty plea Friday without a negotiated agreement with prosecutors, leaving his sentence in the hands of the court.
Gray had earlier pleaded not guilty in connection with the Sept. 4, 2024, attack at the high school roughly 45 miles (73 kilometers) northeast of Atlanta, where two students and two teachers were killed and several other people were injured.
Barrow County Superior Court Judge Nicholas Primm is expected to review summaries from both sides, along with evidence and sentencing recommendations, before determining Gray’s punishment.
The teen’s trial had been set to begin in mid-October in Columbia County, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) from the scene of the shooting, after Primm granted a defense request to move the proceedings to another venue.
The plea comes months after a jury in March convicted Gray’s father, Colin Gray, on charges that included second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter. He is due to be sentenced next week.
Prosecutors said the elder Gray provided his son with the assault-style rifle used in the attack at Apalachee High School.
The victims were teachers Richard “Ricky” Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53, along with 14-year-old students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo.
Another teacher and eight more students were wounded, seven of them hit by gunfire.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
A teenager accused of killing four people nearly two years ago at Apalachee High School in Georgia was in court Friday for a plea and sentencing hearing.
Colt Gray, 16, previously pleaded not guilty to murder and other charges in the Sept. 4, 2024, shooting that killed two students and two teachers, and left several others wounded, at the high school about 45 miles (73 kilometers) northeast of Atlanta.
Barrow County Superior Court Judge Nicholas Primm has set a “Non-Negotiated Plea and Sentencing Hearing” to begin Friday. Gray’s trial had been scheduled to start in mid-October in Columbia County, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) from where the shooting happened, after the judge agreed to a defense request for a change of venue.
Gray was led into the courtroom with his feet chained together and sat at a table with his attorney. Members of the community, including some relatives of victims, were on hand in the courtroom.
A jury in March convicted Gray’s father, Colin Gray, on charges including second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter, and he is scheduled to be sentenced next week. Prosecutors said the elder Gray gave his son the assault-style rifle used to open fire at the school.
Teachers Richard “Ricky” Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53, and students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14, died in the shooting. Another teacher and eight more students were wounded, seven of them hit by gunfire.
A non-negotiated plea means that the state and the defense have not reached an agreement on a sentence. Unlike a negotiated plea deal, in which a defendant often pleads guilty in exchange for an agreed-upon sentence and possibly reduced charges, sentencing is left entirely to the judge.
The judge decides the sentence after hearing each side’s summary of the case, evidence and sentencing recommendation.
Prosecutors have indicated in court filings that they intend to call teenage victims and witnesses to testify and to show surveillance video and crime scene photos during Friday’s hearing.
They have also noted that they may introduce a slew of records, including 911 calls and Colt Gray’s school, medical and social media records.
Gray’s defense attorney wrote in a court filing that he plans to call a psychologist, a counselor at the juvenile detention center where he has been held and his grandmother to testify.
Gray, who was 14 at the time of the shooting, was charged as an adult with 55 total counts, including murder in the four deaths and 25 counts of aggravated assault.
Investigators testified that the teenager carried the rifle onto the school bus with the barrel wrapped in a poster board. They said he left his second-period class and emerged from a bathroom with the rifle, shooting people in a classroom and hallway.
Investigators have said Colt Gray carefully plotted the shooting at the high school of 1,900 students.
A Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent testified that the teen left a notebook in his classroom with step-by-step instructions and a diagram to prepare for the assault, including an estimate that he could kill as many as 26 people and wound as many as 13 others.
Sheriff’s deputies interviewed Colt and Colin Gray in May 2023 about an online threat linked to the son. Colt Gray denied making the threat.
He skipped eighth grade, enrolled as a freshman at Apalachee after the academic year had begun and then had a spotty attendance record.
Investigators found a shrine in Colt Gray’s bedroom to Nikolas Cruz, the shooter in the 2018 massacre at Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, prosecutors said.
An investigator testified during Colin Gray’s trial that he had been aware that his son’s mental health had deteriorated and sought help from a counseling service weeks before the shooting, citing anger, anxiety and volatility.
But the father never followed through on getting help for his son, the investigator said.
His mother, Marcee Gray, who was separated from Colin Gray, told investigators she had urged him weeks before the shooting to secure his guns and restrict their son’s access to them.
Instead, over time, Colin Gray bought the boy ammunition, a gun sight and other shooting accessories, records show.
