VICTIMS ADDRESS GA H.S. SHOOTER AFTER GUILTY PLEA
(CNN) — For nearly two years, the September 2024 shooting at Apalachee High School has loomed over Winder, Georgia.
Now, the community is about to enter what could be the final chapter in the criminal cases stemming from the state’s deadliest school shooting.
Colt Gray, 16, pleaded guilty Friday to 55 charges, including four counts of murder in connection with the deaths of teachers Richard Aspinwall and Cristina Irimie, and students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, as well as the wounding of nine others.
His sentencing hearing resumed Monday as both sides continued to present evidence. Colt will also have an opportunity to speak before the judge determines whether he will spend the rest of his life in prison, with or without the possibility of parole.
Before the court turned to the question of punishment, families used the first day of sentencing Friday to make clear the devastation left behind. Victims’ loved ones embraced, holding tightly to one another. Survivors, carrying both anger and sorrow, recounted the scars they still carry. Voices broke under the weight of memories.
Today, the families will hear more evidence as they inch closer to the judge’s final decision — a sentence that will close one chapter of their painful journey while opening another: the long, uncertain road of healing.
Victims and survivors find their voices
Friday’s sentencing hearing belonged to the victims. One after another, family members and survivors stood before the court, describing who they were before September 4, 2024, and who they have become since.
“I started to hate myself because I couldn’t truly live anymore, because I let you take every piece of joy I had away from me,” said Nautica Walton, who was in ninth grade when she was shot in the leg.
“I hate everything about you,” she told Colt. “I hate the scars you left on my body. I hate that you took innocent lives in front of innocent people. Most of all, I hate that I let you live in my mind.”
Others acknowledged Colt’s difficult childhood circumstances, as revealed during his father’s trial, while making clear it could never justify his actions.
“Two things can be true at the same time,” said Sarah Beaver, the mother of shooting survivor Jaxson Beaver. “He was a child who was failed. He was also the person who failed countless innocent children and their families.”
“The defendant’s family will still get to see their son, talk to him and know he is breathing,” said Ismael Angulo Jr., the oldest sibling of victim Christian Angulo. “My mother (and) my father don’t get that privilege. The only way to visit Christian now is by standing over his grave. There is no fairness in that reality.”
What Colt Gray said before and after the shooting
After the victim impact statements Friday, prosecutors presented never-before-seen evidence from Colt’s private notebooks and interviews with police that offered the public its clearest look yet into his mindset.
Barrow County Sheriff’s Office investigator Jason Smith read aloud from notebooks recovered after the shooting that outlined Colt’s plans in striking detail.
One notebook found in his bedroom contained pleas to escape what he called a “cruel world,” drawings of firearms, sketches depicting a school shooting and references to Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz. Investigators also found what they described as a shrine to Cruz in Colt’s bedroom.
In another notebook, he wrote, “Stop I’m scared! I’m not a killer!” and repeatedly filled pages with the word “why.”
As Smith read Colt’s writings, the teenager remained expressionless, sometimes gently rocking and twisting in his chair.
The courtroom then heard recordings of Colt’s interview with investigators less than an hour after the shooting. Sobbing and struggling to speak, the then-14-year-old described pausing in a school bathroom before carrying out the attack.
“I had a moment in the bathroom of like, I probably shouldn’t do this … next thing I know I’m f**king shooting in a classroom, dude,” Colt said.
Colt repeatedly apologized throughout the interview. “I’ve probably affected thousands of people, this was just f**king horrible,” he said.
He said he heard voices in his head and believed teachers were plotting against him. He also told investigators he believed he should be in a mental health facility.
He insisted his father was not responsible, and when officers arrested him, Colt asked them to deliver a message to his dad: “Tell him that it wasn’t his fault and that I know he tried his hardest.”
Sentence still to come
Monday’s hearing resumed with additional evidence still expected before Judge Nicholas Primm decides between Georgia’s only sentencing options for Colt’s murder convictions: life in prison with the possibility of parole, or life without parole.
Many of the issues expected to factor into Colt’s sentencing were first explored during his father’s trial earlier this year.
Prosecutors accused Colin Gray of buying his son an AR-15-style rifle as a Christmas present and allowing him access to the weapon and ammunition despite warnings his son was a danger to others.
Jurors heard testimony about Colt’s erratic behavior, fascination with mass shooters and months of missed schooling, and family members spoke about his mental health issues.
Colin Gray’s estranged wife, Marcee, testified she warned him multiple times to lock up the firearms and searched online for cases involving parents charged after school shootings a week before the attack. On the morning of September 4, 2024, she called Apalachee High School after receiving a concerning text message from her son and warned staff he had access to guns and had become obsessed with school shootings.
Colin Gray, who was found guilty of murder and manslaughter charges in March, will be sentenced later this week. He faces decades in prison.
CNN’s Eric Levenson, Isabel Rosales, Andy Rose, Rebekah Riess, Sarah Hutter, Devon M. Sayers, and August Phillips contributed to this report.
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