Colin Gray, the father of a teenage student who killed two teachers and two classmates in a Georgia high school shooting two years ago, was sentenced on Thursday to 15 years in prison for providing his son with the weapon used in the attack.
Judge Cites Negligence Tied to Son's Crimes
Judge Nicholas Primm of Barrow County Superior Court said during the sentencing hearing in Winder that Gray's offenses were crimes of negligence "tethered to the tragedy committed by his son" Colton, who was 14 when he entered Apalachee High School on 4 September 2024 and opened fire. Gray was convicted in March on charges of second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter.
Primm stated that Gray shared responsibility for the attack, having gifted his son an assault-style rifle as a Christmas present. "My heart aches for everyone that was there that day, for all of you that have been impacted by it," Primm said. "But the law requires that I set aside emotion. I don't get to sentence with passion. I have the nearly impossible task of sentencing you without passion despite the immeasurable heartache that you caused."
Son Sentenced to Life Without Parole
On Tuesday, Primm sentenced Colton Gray, now 16, to life in prison without parole for the murders of teachers Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53, and 14-year-old students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo. Another teacher and eight students were hurt, seven of them wounded by gunfire. Colton had entered into a plea deal admitting guilt on 55 counts, leaving sentencing up to the judge.
Brian Hobbs, Gray's defense attorney, asked for a sentence of 10 years followed by 10 years of probation, while prosecutors sought 80 years. Gray, 55, is one of a handful of American parents criminally charged after their children were accused in shootings. A jury found him guilty of second-degree murder in the deaths of the two students, as Georgia law defines second-degree murder as causing the death of a child by committing cruelty to children. He was also found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the killings of Aspinwall and Irimie.
Victims' Families Condemn Parental Failures
In impact statements, family members condemned what they said were Gray's failures as a parent. "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, mother of Mason. Shayna Aspinwall, whose husband was killed, said the sentence must account for "the families left behind who must carry the grief and trauma for the rest of our lives." She added, "He did not pull the trigger but purchased and left a firearm accessible to a minor."
Prosecutors said Gray gave his son the rifle as a Christmas gift along with ammunition, a gun sight, and other shooting accessories. Investigator Jason Smith of the Barrow County Sheriff's Office testified that Colton carried the semiautomatic rifle onto the school bus with the barrel sticking out, wrapped in poster board. The teenager left his second-period class, went to a bathroom, emerged with the rifle, and shot people in the hallway and a classroom.
Online Obsession with Mass Shooters
The teenager, prosecutors said, was immersed in an online "true crime community" where he and others discussed their obsession with mass shooters, particularly Nikolas Cruz, who murdered 14 students and three adults at Florida's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018. Gray had shown signs of deteriorating mental health in the weeks leading up to the shooting at the school about 45 miles east of Atlanta.
Gray's attorney argued that his son "actively hid the depth of his involvement" in the online community, and that a sentence equal to the son's would erase the line in Georgia law "between the harm a person intends to do and the harm a person fails to prevent." But Barrow County District Attorney Brad Smith said Gray "was convicted for what he did know," ignoring "a substantial and unjustifiable risk" in giving his son the weapon despite being aware that Colton had adorned his bedroom walls with photographs and news articles about the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting.
