Colin Gray, the father of alleged school shooter Colt Gray, was found guilty of murder on Tuesday in relation to the Sept. 4, 2024, shooting that killed four people and injured nine others at Apalachee High School near Winder, Georgia.
The jury deliberated for a few hours. Their verdict comes after two weeks of testimony in which prosecutors argued that Colin Gray, the 55-year-old father of Colt Gray — who was 14 when he shot and killed multiple students and teachers at his school — should be held responsible for the shooting because he bought his son an AR-style rifle despite knowing he had violent tendencies and that his mental health was deteriorating. Colin Gray was found guilty of all charges, which included second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter and cruelty to children.
Colin Gray now faces up to 180 years in prison on charges of murder in the second degree and involuntary manslaughter.
During closing arguments Monday, Patricia Brooks, the Barrow County assistant district attorney, described the father as a “narcissist” who created a facade that he was a good parent. She argued that he bought his son a rifle, lied about taking him to counseling, and purposely ignored warning signs, like Colt Gray’s past threat to shoot up a school and his bedroom shrine dedicated to school shooters.
“We already live in a world where our teachers, our students, our law enforcement officers have to train for the possibility of an active shooter coming to their school,” Brooks said Monday during her closing arguments. “It’s preposterous to say that they are the ones to blame for what happened on Sept. 4.”
The defense argued in its closing arguments that Colt Gray, who has pleaded not guilty to four counts of murder, is the only one who should face charges, and that the jury shouldn’t “follow the DA down this slippery slope of attempting to hold parents criminally responsible for what their children do.”
Defense attorney Jimmy Barry argued that his client didn’t know the extent of Colt Gray’s mental issues. Even if Colt Gray was taken to a counselor, Barry argued, he was “manipulative enough” to convince the counselor that he was fine.
“Who would be able to foresee that a 14-year-old is going to take a black rifle … 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,” Barry said.
Colin Gray said in his Friday testimony that, in an effort to get his son away from the computer and bond with him, he took him deer hunting and gifted him an AR-15-style rifle for Christmas 2023, almost a year before the school shooting.
Colt Gray had only started living with his father in the sixth grade. He had also been in trouble before the school shooting.
In May 2023, the FBI showed up at his home because Colt Gray had allegedly been involved in a conversation on Discord about school shooters. Colin Gray said he took the visit from police seriously, but ultimately, police told him that many people were in the conversation and that they had traced an IP address to Russia or California. Colin Gray said the investigator told him not to give Colt Gray free access to guns.
Prosecutors pressed Colin Gray on his son’s behavior, specifically in the sixth grade, when the boy searched on a computer “how to kill your dad.” The same year, he was suspended from school for drawing a swastika on a school calculator, leaving the cafeteria without permission, and fighting with another student. Colin Gray said he wasn’t aware about the computer search until months later and he didn’t know about the suspensions until the trial.
Still, when questioned about the guns in his home, Colin Gray said his son had a “healthy respect for weapons” and that he never made any threats with a gun. He described his son as a “good” and “compassionate kid” whom he never thought would carry out a school shooting.
Marcee Gray, the mother of Colt Gray, painted a different picture of the teenage boy. During her testimony on Feb. 23, she said his behavior at times was “alarming,” “aggressive,” “unpredictable,” and that he had “a lot of anger inside.”
On the morning of the school shooting, Colin Gray told Marcee Gray that their son had sent some strange texts to him, so Marcee Gray called the school to tell the school counselor about Colt Gray’s anxiety. The counselor told her that her son’s first-period teacher had said that he was asking about active-shooter drills. Marcee Gray said she told the counselor to go find him.
Colt Gray then texted his mom, “I’m sorry.” He allegedly started shooting about 30 minutes later.
Colin Gray’s verdict comes about a year after the verdict of Jennifer and James Crumbley in Michigan, where a jury found them guilty for involuntary manslaughter after their son killed four people in 2021 at Oxford High School.
Brad Smith, district attorney for Barrow County, told reporters Tuesday that he hopes this verdict moves “the needle a little further” in stopping future school shootings.
He added that they considered charging Marcee Gray because what she did was “morally reprehensible.”
“We do not believe she’s a good mother in my opinion, but at the end of the day, she did not have custody of Colt, she did not have proximity to Colt, and she was not the one who provided him the firearm,” Smith said.
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