A teen pleaded guilty to 55 charges, including murder, two years after the tragic shooting at Apalachee High School in Georgia.
Colt Gray was just 14 when he opened fire at the campus northeast of Atlanta on September 4, 2024, killing two teachers and two students while injuring several others.
Since he entered the plea without any prior deal from prosecutors, he now faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison.
The judge will ultimately decide after hearing testimony whether he will ever be eligible for parole.
This guilty plea follows a March trial where a jury convicted the boy’s father, Colin Gray, on charges including second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter.
According to prosecutors, the father gave his son the assault-style rifle used in the deadly attack. His sentencing is set for next week.
The victims who lost their lives were Richard Aspinwall and Cristina Irimie, both teachers, and 14-year-old students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo; nine others were wounded.
In court, Judge Nicholas Primm checked in with Gray to make sure he really understood what it meant to plead guilty.
Under state law, a murder conviction carries at least a life sentence. Before deciding whether parole will ever be an option, the judge is hearing from victims and their families.
Family members and surviving students gave heartbreaking statements in court, sharing their grief and asking for the maximum penalty possible.
The mother of one slain student explained that even though adults around the teen missed clear warning signs, Gray was the one who ultimately made the decision to bring the gun to school and pull the trigger.
One of the teacher’s wives talked about how their two young daughters will now have to grow up without their father.
One survivor from the shooting recalled the terror she felt after seeing the gunman; shortly afterwards, she realized she had been hit.
She said she held a friend’s hand and asked others to call her brother because she wasn’t sure if she would survive; she ended up needing multiple surgeries and spent roughly a year learning how to walk again.
The high school principal also addressed the court, stating that such cruel behavior warrants the strictest punishment.
The sentencing hearing will continue on Monday, when the defense team plans to present testimony from a juvenile detention counselor, a psychologist, and the teenager’s grandmother before the judge makes a final ruling on his sentence.
