Sakshi Venkatraman’s 31 July 2026 BBC News report on the sentencing of Colin Gray to 15 years in prison for murder, manslaughter, and other charges stemming from the 2024 Apalachee High School shooting in Winder, Georgia, in which his 16-year-old son Colt Gray killed four people with an AR-style rifle the father had given him as a Christmas gift.
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The sentencing
Judge Nicholas Primm sentenced Colin Gray on Thursday to 15 years for each second-degree murder conviction and 10 years for each involuntary manslaughter conviction, all to be served concurrently, for a total of 15 years. Prosecutors had asked for 80 years; the defence asked for 10.
The judge admonished Gray for failing to send his son to counselling, failing to monitor his online activity, and failing to lock up the guns in the house, but also acknowledged that Gray “didn’t seek to harm anyone” and “didn’t pull a trigger” himself.
The underlying facts
Colt Gray killed Christian Angulo (14), Mason Schermerhorn (14), Richard Aspinwall (39), and Cristina Irimie (53) at Apalachee High School outside Atlanta in 2024. He pleaded guilty to the murders the week before his father’s sentencing.
The jury heard that Colin Gray bought his son an AR-style rifle for Christmas the year before the attack, seven months after the boy had been questioned by police about online threats to commit a school shooting. Prosecutors argued he ignored warning signs including a notebook detailing his son’s plan to kill students and teachers.
Significance
The prosecution is the third time a US parent has been held criminally responsible for a mass shooting carried out by their child, following the April 2024 sentencing of the parents of the Oxford High School shooter in Michigan.
See Apalachee High School shooting for the event note.
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