Georgia teen likely to plead guilty in 2024 school shooting
A teenager accused of killing two classmates and two teachers at his Georgia high school apparently plans to plead guilty.
Court records filed Friday in Barrow County, Georgia, show that Colt Gray is scheduled to appear before a judge on July 24 for a “non-negotiated plea and sentencing hearing.”
Gray had previously pleaded not guilty in the Sept. 4, 2004, shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, a small town about 40 miles northeast of Atlanta. Besides the four people who died, nine were wounded.
The change of plea would bring an end to a case notable in part because Gray’s father also was charged in connection with the shooting.
Teen charged as an adult
Gray was a 14-year-old freshman when he allegedly brought a semiautomatic AR-style rifle to school in his book bag. During the school’s second period, he emerged from a restroom with the rifle and opened fire in a hallway and a classroom.
Students Christian Angulo and Mason Schermerhorn and teachers Richard Aspinwall and Ana-Cristina Irimie died in the attack.
Gray faces 55 charges, including malice murder, aggravated assault and aggravated battery. He could be sentenced to as much as 180 years in prison.
Although he is charged as an adult, Gray has been held since 2024 at a juvenile detention center.
No motive was ever established for the shooting. However, according to pre-trial testimony, he left a notebook detailing plans for the shooting and a diagram of one of his classrooms.
Holding parents accountable
In March, a jury convicted Gray’s father, Colin, on 27 counts, including second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter and cruelty to children.
Prosecutors said Colin Gray allowed his son to access the firearms and ammunition used in the shooting at Apalachee High despite warnings the boy might harm others.
A judge is scheduled to sentence Colin Gray later this month. He faces as much as 200 years in prison.
His case drew national attention because only one other school shooting in the U.S. had resulted in charges against the accused shooter’s parents.
Juries in Michigan convicted Jennifer and James Crumbley of involuntary manslaughter in 2024 after their son Ethan pleaded guilty to killing four students at Michigan’s Oxford High School in 2021. Both parents were sentenced to 10 to 15 years in prison.
In December 2024, three months after the Georgia shooting, police in Madison, Wisconsin, filed charges against Jeffrey Rupnow after his 15-year-old daughter, Natalie, killed two classmates and wounded six others before taking her own life at Abundant Life Christian School.
On Wednesday, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals denied Rupnow’s request that the charges against him — contributing to the delinquency of a child and providing a dangerous weapon to a person under 18 resulting in death — be dismissed.
Rupnow, who is scheduled to stand trial next March, argued that the charges violated his Second Amendment rights.
Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
