Teen Colt Gray sentenced to life without parole for deadly mass shooting at his Georgia high school
Two teachers and two students were killed in the Apalachee High School shooting.
A teenage boy who carried out a mass shooting at his Georgia high school, killing two students and two teachers, was sentenced to life without parole, with the judge calling his actions "deliberate, contemplated evil."
Colt Gray, 16, faced a sentence of life with or without parole after pleading guilty to all 55 counts against him, including murder and aggravated assault.
Judge Nicholas Primm handed down the sentence on Tuesday in Barrow County after taking over an hour to deliberate following closing arguments, during which prosecutors said the teen idolized other mass shooters and wanted infamy.
"You wrote, 'I want to make history. I want people to remember the pain I caused,' and there you succeeded," Primm said. "The pain that you visited upon this community is unlikely to disappear in my lifetime."
The judge continued, "You do not seem to be tormented by what you did. You seem to relish following in the footsteps of the murderers you idolize, you aren't wracked with guilt. You're proud of yourself."
Primm said Gray "studied and obsessed" over other mass shootings and was well aware of their outcomes in court -- life without parole. He said Tuesday's sentence does not bring joy, but closure.
"The slain will not return to life, the injured will not forget their wounds, and a 16-year-old -- a 16-year-old boy -- will live and die in prison," Primm said.
Gray was 14 years old in September 2024 when he opened fire at Apalachee High School, killing two students and two teachers and injuring several others. He pleaded guilty last Friday without negotiating a plea deal.
The state asked for life without parole, arguing that Gray committed the shooting not because he was suffering any "emotional breakdown," but because he wanted "eternal fame" within the True Crime Community and took calculated steps as part of that goal.
"I think it's become abundantly clear through the state's presentation of evidence that the ultimate goal of all of his actions and his underlying motive was to be famous. Famous not in the sense that we adults think of fame, but specifically famous and popular within this subculture community known as the TCC," District Attorney Brad Smith said during his closing argument on Tuesday.
Smith acknowledged that Gray had a "bad childhood," but argued that doesn't excuse his actions. The district attorney said they have not seen evidence that Gray has "any ability to ever value human life" and that the teen "cannot be in society."
"He's the only one in the history of Georgia who has ever taken an assault rifle into a public school and opened fire on perfect strangers, simply so he could be famous," Smith said.
The defense, meanwhile, said Gray "spared the community" a trial by admitting his guilt. He focused on the teen's upbringing, arguing that his parents left him with no stability or moral grounding.
"Most importantly, they did not give him proper psychological and mental health care when they saw him deteriorating, when they saw him drawing into himself, when they saw him disappearing into his room," defense attorney Charlton Allen said during his closing argument. "What did they do? They spent their time in their own worlds on drugs, buying guns, and splitting up, and coming back together, and splitting up and changing schools and giving absolutely no stability."
Allen asked the judge for life with parole and to give the teen an "opportunity of hope."
"Colt was at an extremely vulnerable time in his life when he didn't get what he needed at a very young age, and that certainly doesn't mean that once we give him what he needs now going forward, he can't be made a productive member of society," Allen said.
The sentence was handed down following three days of testimony, including multiple victim impact statements during which several family members of those killed in the shooting asked for the maximum possible sentence.
Shayna Aspinwall, whose husband, 39-year-old Richard Aspinwall, was killed, told the judge that parole hearings would be "continued torture" for her family.
Ismael Angulo, whose brother, 14-year-old Christian Angulo, was killed, described "every day as a nightmare" while asking the judge to sentence Gray to life without the possibility of parole.
Mason Schermerhorn, 14, and Cristina Irimie, 53, were also killed in the shooting.
A forensic psychologist who evaluated Gray following the shooting testified during the sentencing hearing this week that the teen's upbringing was "pretty chaotic" and lonely and that the teen was "kind of obsessed" with other school shooters.
An investigator with the Barrow County District Attorney's Office testified that Gray had a "shrine" on his bedroom wall to Nikolas Cruz, the shooter in the Parkland high school massacre, and that he copycatted Cruz and other mass school shooters in the Apalachee school shooting. In jail calls with his mother that were played in court on Tuesday, Gray discussed his own notoriety in the weeks following the Apalachee shooting, the investigator said.
Gray declined to address the court ahead of sentencing.
The teen's grandmother, Deborah Polhamus, testified that she believed his parents failed him, and that with continued therapy he could be a productive person.
"He had convinced himself that this was the way for him to go because he could be somebody," she said. "All he ever wanted was to have a friend. All he ever wanted was to be included and loved."
Gray carried out the shooting with a rifle his father, Colin Gray, gifted him as a Christmas present, officials said. This March, Colin Gray was convicted of charges including second-degree murder and manslaughter. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Thursday.
ABC News' Emily Shapiro contributed to this report.
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