Apalachee High School shooting suspect pleads guilty to all charges

▶ Watch Video: Colt Gray set to enter plea in Apalachee High School shooting case

Colt Gray, the teen accused of killing two teachers and two students and injuring nine others in the 2024 shooting at Georgia’s Apalachee High School, pleaded guilty to all 55 charges in court on Friday morning.

Gray entered a “non-negotiated” plea, which means that he admitted guilt to all of his charges without a pre-arranged deal between his attorneys and the prosecution.

Gray, who was charged as an adult, is facing a total of 55 counts, including malice murder, aggravated battery, and aggravated assault. The judge will have the ultimate say in the sentence. The minimum is life with parole; the maximum is life without parole. 

The hearing comes months after Gray’s attorneys indicated that they were attempting to negotiate a plea deal for the teen. This week is the deadline set by Judge Nicholas Primm for a possible plea. The plea hearing could continue into the following week if necessary.

In June, Primm ordered Gray’s trial be moved to Columbia County, arguing that the “widespread local, statewide and national coverage of the case” would make it difficult to find unbiased jurors in Barrow County, where the shooting took place.

Four people, 14-year-old students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo and teachers Richard Aspinwall and Cristina Irimie, were killed in the shooting. Another teacher and eight students were wounded.

Family, friends of victims give emotional testimony

One by one, family members and survivors described the grief, trauma and lives forever changed by the 2024 shooting at Apalachee High School. 

Mason Schermerhorn’s family remembered him as a caring teenager who “was so much more than a victim,” while recounting the frantic search for him and the moment they learned he had been killed. His sisters told the court they continue to struggle with anxiety, panic attacks and the emotional weight of returning to schools and public places. 

Ricky Aspinwall’s widow said the life they planned together “no longer exists,” and Christian Angulo’s brother asked the judge to ensure the shooter is never released. 

A student who survived after being shot described the chaos inside the school, months of hospitalization and rehabilitation, and the lasting pain carried by the Apalachee community.

“I hope my story makes Colt realize all the horrible things he has done and all the pain and suffering he has caused,” the student said.

Investigators present notebooks, cellphone evidence they say show shooting was planned

Prosecutors then began presenting evidence they said showed the shooting was planned well before Sept. 4. 

Barrow County Sheriff’s Office investigator Jason Smith testified that Colt Gray’s cellphone, notebooks and other evidence documented what investigators described as a detailed plan for the attack. 

Smith said Gray initially told investigators the shooting was a spontaneous decision after hearing voices, but investigators concluded it had been planned in advance. Jurors were shown pages from a black notebook prosecutors said Gray brought to school that day, which included sketches of classrooms, handwritten plans outlining the attack, references to ammunition and the number of people he expected to kill or injure, and repeated writings questioning why he was the way he was. 

Investigators also recovered a notebook from Gray’s home containing writings expressing despair, drawings and references to previous mass shooters, including Nikolas Cruz, whom prosecutors said Gray had become fixated on. Smith also testified that Gray showed little emotion after his arrest as investigators advised him of the charges against him.

A father and son facing charges

Colt Gray’s father, Colin Gray, was convicted on 27 counts, including second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter, and cruelty to children in March. He was the first parent charged in connection with a mass school shooting in Georgia and the third time a parent was charged for their connection to a mass shooting allegedly carried out by their child.

Prosecutors claimed that Colin Gray gave his son the gun used in the shooting at his high school as a Christmas gift, and allowed him access to it and ammunition despite warning signs that the teen’s mental state was deteriorating. The prosecution pointed to evidence of what they called an obsession with school shooters, including a “shrine” Colt Gray built to Nikolas Cruz, convicted of the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida.

Colin Gray had admitted to giving his son the rifle, but said he had hoped to bond with Colt while hunting and at the gun range. His sentencing hearing is scheduled to take place on July 30.

On Sept. 4 2024, investigators say then-14-year-old Gray carried a semiautomatic assault-style rifle onto the school bus, with the barrel sticking out of his book bag, wrapped up in a poster board. He left his second-period class and then emerged from a bathroom with the rifle before shooting people in a classroom and hallways.

Agents with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation have previously testified in court to finding notebooks in which Colt Gray wrote about his plans to commit the shooting, including a note to “shoot the teacher first.” 

Pages of the notebook were shown in the sentencing hearing afterward which included drawings of what Gray’s second period class looked like and plans that showed the teen expected to kill up to 26 people and injure 11. Several pages showed doodles of guns with magazines attached.

Colt Gray surrendered to school resource officers at the scene. He has remained in custody ever since.

Jared Eggleston, Chris St. Peter and Cara Tabachnick contributed to this report.