BARROW COUNTY, Ga. — A teen who pleaded guilty to killing four people during a shooting at a Georgia high school in 2024 was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Colt Gray, 16, was sentenced in a Barrow County courtroom on Tuesday for the September 2024 shootings, which occurred at Apalachee High School in Winder, located approximately 40 miles northeast of downtown Atlanta.
Judge Nicholas Primm handed down the sentence after three days of testimony and arguments during Gray’s sentencing hearing, WSB-TV reported.
Gray had entered a guilty plea in Barrow County Superior Court on Friday. He pleaded guilty to 55 charges connected with the mass shooting he carried out as a 14-year-old freshman at the school, according to the television station.
Teachers Richard “Ricky” Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53, along with 14-year-old students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, died in the shooting, according to The Associated Press. Another teacher and eight more students were wounded, seven of them hit by gunfire.
[ Apalachee High School shooting: Colt Gray pleads guilty ]
“Four lives were stolen, two of whom were only just beginning,” Primm said as he announced the sentence. “And it wasn’t done out of fear or anger. You weren’t being bullied at Apalachee. It wasn’t done out of hatred – you didn’t even know anybody at that school.
“It was done for the infamy of it.”
Primm agreed with prosecutors’ arguments that Gray had become obsessed with other mass shooters through an online community and wanted to become famous, WSB-TV reported.
“The pain that you visited upon this community is unlikely to disappear in my lifetime,” Primm said. “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.
District Attorney Brad Smith said he was happy with the sentencing.
“This was something that I didn’t know existed, this true crime community that’s out there, and the insidiousness of it,” he said. “This is not a happy day. This is a relief day, I would say.”
Aspinwall’s wife, Shayna Aspinwall, spoke about “a life sentence of grief and trauma for those left behind,” the AP reported.
Breanna Schermerhorn said during her victim impact statement that Gray knew the difference between right and wrong, WSB-TV reported.
“I want it to be very clear that I do not forgive Mr. Gray,” she said. “The failures of the adults around him may explain parts of his story, but they do not excuse the decisions that he made.
“Those decisions were his and his alone, and because of those decisions, my Macy Mace is gone. My family, both biological and chosen, have been forced to endure horrors.”
Defense Attorney Charlton Allen told Primm during his closing arguments Gray is young enough to change, WSB-TV reported.
“He’s not irretrievably broken,” Allen said.
Allen said Gray can still become a productive member of society.
“A life sentence with parole gives him an opportunity for hope. It’s an important factor for someone becoming a different person,” Allen said. “If we give him life without parole, that gives him no hope to change.”