A Georgia father has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for providing the gun his son used to kill two students and two teachers at Apalachee High School. Colin Gray, 55, received his sentence Thursday, days after his son, Colt Gray, was given a life sentence without parole for the Sept. 4, 2024, attack.
Judge Nicholas Primm, who presided over both sentencings, stated that Colin Gray had failed as a parent, but acknowledged the difficulty in sentencing negligence. "It is clear you failed as a parent," Primm told Gray. "But the law requires that I set aside emotion. I don’t get to sentence with passion."
Colin Gray was found guilty in March of second-degree murder for the deaths of 14-year-old students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo. He was also convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the deaths of teachers Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53. Seven other students and another teacher were wounded in the attack.
Prosecutors argued that Colin Gray gifted his son the semiautomatic rifle and ammunition for Christmas. An investigator testified that Colt Gray, then 14, brought the rifle to school concealed in poster board, emerging from a bathroom to fire on individuals in a hallway and a classroom. Evidence presented during the trial indicated that Colt Gray had shown deteriorating mental health in the weeks prior to the shooting and was involved in an online community focused on mass shooters.
Family members of the victims condemned Colin Gray's actions, with Breanna Schermerhorn, mother of a slain student, stating, "This wasn’t unavoidable. This was preventable. Because of the choices made inside the Gray household, four families were handed life sentences of grief." Shayna Aspinwall, wife of a slain teacher, added that the sentence must account for the lasting grief and trauma experienced by the families.
During the sentencing, prosecutors had sought an 80-year sentence, citing Colin Gray's alleged ignorance of substantial risks. The defense had requested a 10-year prison sentence followed by probation, referencing the case of Jennifer and James Crumbley. The Crumbleys, parents of a student who killed four people at Oxford High School in Michigan, were each sentenced to 10 years for involuntary manslaughter after gifting their son a gun. The judge noted that while the father's crime would not have occurred without the son's actions, Colin Gray had multiple opportunities to secure the firearms, remove access, or seek counseling for his son.
"You were convicted because the warning lights were flashing brighter and brighter and you didn’t get him help and you didn’t remove his access to the guns," Primm stated.