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By Jenna Sundel and Gabe Whisnant
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A Georgia man whose teenage son is accused of killing two students and two teachers at a high school was convicted Tuesday of second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter in a case that has drawn national attention to parents’ criminal liability in school shootings.
Colin Gray was found guilty on all charges tied to the September 2024 attack at Apalachee High School in Winder, northeast of Atlanta. He showed little emotion as jurors were polled individually, then was handcuffed at the defense table as deputies led him away.
“We talk a lot about rights in our country,” Barrow County District Attorney Brad Smith said after the verdict. “But God gave us a duty to protect our children, and I hope that we remember that, as parents, as community members, to protect our children because that is our God-given duty.”
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Gray’s defense lawyers left the courthouse without speaking to reporters.
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Colin Gray Charges: What We Know
Gray was found guilty of second-degree murder in the deaths of two 14-year-old students, Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo. Georgia law defines the charge as causing the death of a child by committing the crime of cruelty to children.
He was also found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the killings of teachers Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53. The jury took less than two hours to reach the verdict.
Another teacher and eight other students were injured in the shooting. Gray was also convicted of multiple counts of reckless conduct and cruelty to children.
Who Is Colin Gray?
Prosecutors had alleged that Colin, 55, gave his teenage son, Colt Gray, access to a gun and ammunition “after receiving sufficient warning that Colt Gray would harm and endanger the bodily safety of another.”
Colin had given his son the gun used in the attack, a semiautomatic, assault-style rifle, as a Christmas gift before the shooting. The prosecution alleged that Colin was aware that is son’s mental health had deteriorated.
“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,” Barrow County Assistant District Attorney Patricia Brooks told jurors during closing arguments. “And instead of disarming him, he gave him the detonator.”
Jimmy Berry, a lawyer representing Colin, argued that Colt should be held accountable in this case. He held up a photo of Colt during closing arguments and said, “This is the person who went into the high school and shot and killed four people he didn’t even know and injured scores of others.”
“This is the person who needs to be punished,” he said. “He made a conscious decision to do this, a secretive decision.”
Colt's mother, Marcee Gray, testified during the trial that she urged Colin to lock up any guns in the home inside his truck so they were not accessible to their son. She was separated from Colin in the months leading up to the shooting, and Colt lived mostly with his father during that time. She was not charged in connection with the shooting.
Who Is Colin Gray's Son, Colt?
Colt, who was 14 at the time of the shooting, was indicted on a total of 55 counts, including murder. He has pleaded not guilty, and a status hearing in the case is scheduled for later this month.
Investigators said Colt planned the shooting at Apalachee High School, which is attended by 1,900 students.
Investigators said he boarded the school bus with a gun in his backpack, the barrel sticking out and wrapped in poster board, on the day of the shooting. He left his second-period class and emerged from a bathroom with the gun, then shot people in a classroom and hallways, investigators said.
Prosecutors said Colt had a shrine in his room to Nikolas Cruz, the gunman in the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
When Was the Apalachee High School Shooting?
The Apalachee High School shooting happened on September 4, 2024.
What Happens Next
Gray will be sentenced at a later date.
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Update 3/3/26, 12:52 p.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.
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