ATLANTA (AP) — Jury selection got underway Monday in the trial of a man whose teenage son is accused of killing two students and two teachers at a Georgia high school in September 2024.
Colin Gray faces 29 counts, including two counts of second-degree murder, two counts of involuntary manslaughter and numerous counts of second-degree cruelty to children related to the shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder. He is one of a handful of parents around the country charged with crimes after their children are accused of committing acts of violence.
An indictment says Gray committed cruelty to children by giving his son, Colt, access to a gun and ammunition “after receiving sufficient warning that Colt Gray would harm and endanger the bodily safety of another.” Second-degree murder, an unusual charge under Georgia law, is defined as causing the death of a child by committing the crime of cruelty to children.
Killed in the shooting were teachers Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53, and two 14-year-old students, Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo. Another teacher and eight other students were wounded.
The shooting
Investigators have said Colt Gray, who was 14 at the time, carefully planned the Sept. 4, 2024, shooting at the school northeast of Atlanta that is attended by 1,900 students.
He wrote step-by-step plans for the assault in a notebook, including diagrams and potential body counts, a Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent testified at a hearing the month after the shooting.
With a semiautomatic, assault-style rifle in his book bag, the barrel sticking out and wrapped in poster board, he boarded the school bus, investigators said. He left his second-period class and emerged from a bathroom with the gun and then shot people in a classroom and hallways, investigators said.
Accusations against the father
Colin Gray had given his son the gun as a gift the Christmas before the shooting and later, at his son’s request, bought a larger magazine so the weapon could hold more rounds, an investigator testified during a pretrial hearing.
Colin Gray knew his son was obsessed with school shooters, even having a shrine in his bedroom to Nikolas Cruz, the shooter in the 2018 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, prosecutors have said. A GBI agent testified that the teen’s parents had discussed their son’s fascination with school shooters but decided that it was in a joking context and not a serious issue.
Colin Gray was also aware his son’s mental health had deteriorated, investigators testified. Seeking help from a counseling service weeks before the shooting, he wrote about his son: “We have had a very difficult past couple of years and he needs help. Anger, anxiety, quick to be volatile. I don’t know what to do.”
The trial
The trial will be held in Winder, in Barrow County, where Apalachee High School is located. But jury selection is happening in Gainesville, in Hall County, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) away.
Colin Gray’s lawyer had sought a change of venue, arguing publicity may have tainted the opinion of potential Barrow County jurors. Prosecutors agreed, noting the impact the shooting had on the community.
The defense was unhappy with the judge’s selection of Hall County for the jury pool, acknowledging the convenience for jurors but arguing it was too close, remaining “within the geographic epicenter of this tragedy.”
The judge in the case set bond for Gray at $500,000, but he has remained in custody since he was arrested the day after shooting.
It’s unknown how long jury selection will take or how long the trial will last once testimony gets underway. The judge has blocked off three weeks for jury selection and the trial.
Other cases against parents
There have been a number of cases around the country where prosecutors have chosen to charge parents when they believe there is evidence a parent contributed to violence attributed to a child.
Jennifer and James Crumbley were the first parents in the U.S. to be held criminally responsible for a mass shooting at a school by a child. They were convicted months before the shooting at Apalachee High School and are serving 10-year prison terms for involuntary manslaughter.
Their son, Ethan Crumbley, killed four students and wounded others at Michigan’s Oxford High School in 2021. Prosecutors faulted the Crumbleys for not securing a firearm at home and acting indifferently to signs of their son’s deteriorating mental health. They said Ethan’s actions were foreseeable and the parents had failed to prevent the violence.
Jeffrey Rupnow is charged with intentionally giving a dangerous weapon to a person under 18 causing death. His daughter, Natalie Rupnow, 15, killed a student and a teacher at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wisconsin, and killed herself in December 2024.
Robert Crimo Jr. pleaded guilty to misdemeanors and was sentenced for endorsing his son’s Illinois gun permit in 2019 despite knowing Robert Crimo III had expressed suicidal thoughts. Crimo III killed seven people in 2022 at a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, a northern suburb of Chicago.
The case against Colt Gray
Colt Gray was indicted on a total of 55 counts, including murder in the deaths of four people and 25 counts of aggravated assault. He has pleaded not guilty, but a lawyer for the teen said during a hearing in May that his client would likely be ready to plead guilty after a psychologist’s report was prepared.
New lawyers have started representing him since then. At a brief hearing in December, the judge said a status hearing in the case would be held in mid-March.
