Colin Gray, the father of a 16‑year‑old who killed four people at a Georgia high school, has been sentenced to 15 years in prison on charges of murder, manslaughter, and related offenses.
At 55, Gray was found guilty in March on a range of charges linked to a 2024 incident that claimed the lives of two teachers and two students in Winder, Georgia.
Colt Gray, 16, pleaded guilty to the murders last week, and investigators revealed that the rifle he used was a gift from his father.
Prosecutors stated that Gray was “the one person who could have prevented” the shooting.
The attack at Apalachee High School, located near Atlanta, resulted in the deaths of Christian Angulo, 14; Mason Schermerhorn, 14; Richard Aspinwall, 39; and Cristina Irimie, 53.
Gray’s conviction marks the third occasion in the United States where a parent has been held criminally responsible for a mass shooting carried out by their child.
Judge Nicholas Primm imposed a sentence of 15 years for each second‑degree murder conviction and 10 years for each involuntary manslaughter conviction, all to run concurrently.
Prosecutors had requested the maximum penalty of 80 years, while the defense sought a lighter 10‑year sentence.
During the sentencing, Judge Primm cautioned Gray for failing to provide counseling for his son, monitor his online activities, and secure firearms in the household.
“You failed as a parent,” the judge remarked. “The warning lights were flashing brighter and brighter, and you failed to take the simplest steps to prevent this.”
The judge also acknowledged that Gray did not intend to harm anyone directly and did not pull a trigger himself.
During the trial, jurors heard that Gray had bought his son an AR‑style rifle for Christmas the year before the attack, even though the boy had been questioned by police merely seven months earlier about online threats to commit a school shooting.
Prosecutors contended that Gray ignored numerous warning signs, including a notebook outlining his son’s plans to kill students and teachers.
“After seeing repeated signs of his son’s deteriorating mental state, his violence, and his school‑shooter fixation, the defendant had ample warning that his son was a bomb waiting to go off,” Assistant District Attorney Patricia Brooks told the jury.
“And instead of disarming him, he provided the detonator.”
Gray’s attorneys attempted to place responsibility on his son.
“This is the individual who entered the high school and shot and killed four people he did not even know, injuring scores of others,” his lawyer, Jimmy Barry, told jurors.
