Father of Georgia school shooter gets 15 years in prison
by Lisa Hornung · UPIJuly 30 (UPI) -- Colin Gray, the father of Georgia school shooter Colt Gray, was sentenced to 15 years in prison Thursday, just two days after his son was sentenced to life in prison.
On Tuesday, Colt Gray, now 16, was sentenced to life without parole for the Sept. 4, 2024, shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Ga. Two teachers and two students were killed, and another teacher and eight students were injured.
Colin Gray was found guilty in March of 29 charges, including two counts of second-degree murder and two counts of involuntary manslaughter.
"My heart aches for everyone who was there that day, for all of you that have been impacted by it, but the law requires that I set aside emotion, I don't get to sentence with passion," Judge Nicholas Primm said as he was sentencing Colin Gray. "I have the nearly impossible task of sentencing you without passion despite the immeasurable heartache that you've caused."
Primm told Gray that he had failed Colt as a parent.
"You did not provide a stable household. You did not have things in check with Marcee's [Colt's estranged mother's] issues and what the kids were being exposed to. You did not have Colt in activities that a boy should be in where he's making connections with children in person, where he feels loved, where he feels accepted. You didn't monitor what was going on with him and the computer. You didn't have him in school," Primm said.
Primm added that Colin Gray didn't make Colt go to school his eighth grade year.
"And what did he do that entire eighth grade year when he wasn't in school? He watched and rewatched the school shooting trial of [Parkland High School shooter] Nikolas Cruz. He fell deeper and deeper into this obsession, when he should have been in school every day, and that was a failure on your part. He didn't get any mental health counseling when it was obvious he needed some. None of those failures helped your case, but those aren't why you were convicted. You were convicted because the warning lights were flashing brighter and brighter. And you didn't get him help and you didn't remove his access to the guns."
District Attorney Brad Smith argued that Colin Gray should get the same punishment as his son.
"This was the risk he was ignoring: That there would be a mass shooting of children at a school. And he gave his son the exact tool he would need to accomplish this. He is the reason four people are dead, seven were injured and countless others were traumatized," Smith said. "And he is the reason a 16-year-old boy was sentenced two days ago to the rest of his life in prison."
Colt Gray's mother, Marcee Gray, will not face criminal charges, Smith said Tuesday.
At a press conference after Tuesday's sentencing, Smith said Georgia law doesn't allow him to prosecute her for any crimes.
"Make no mistake, Marcee's disgusting, and her actions are contemptible," Smith said. "But he's the one that's directing her what to do."
A damaging part of the criminal proceedings was the playing of jail calls between Colt and Marcee Gray. They discussed his media image and marveled at his comparison to other school shooters. They laughed about his notoriety, 11Alive News reported.
When discussing a piece of fan art that showed an image of Colt beside the Columbine High School shooters and Cruz, Marcee Gray said, "It's awesome."
Marcee Gray is no longer allowed contact with her son after investigators listened to the recordings of their calls. A mental health counselor at his youth detention facility has said he is doing much better since the contact ended.