Teen Pleads Guilty to 55 Counts in School Shooting

A teenager has pleaded guilty to all 55 counts in a deadly shooting nearly two years ago at Apalachee High School in Georgia. Colt Gray, 16, entered the plea Friday without having reached a deal with prosecutors. He had previously pleaded not guilty to charges in the Sept. 4, 2024, shooting that killed two students and two teachers, and left several others wounded, at the high school about 45 miles northeast of Atlanta, the AP reports.

• Before accepting the plea, Barrow County Superior Court Judge Nicholas Primm asked Gray a series of questions meant to ensure that the teenager was aware of the consequences of his plea and was entering it voluntarily. To each question, Gray responded, "Yes, your honor."

Because he pleaded guilty to murder, Gray faces a minimum sentence of life in prison. The judge must decide whether he should be eligible for parole after hearing victim statements, evidence and each side's summary of the case. Gray, who was 14 at the time of the shooting, was charged as an adult with the 55 total counts, including murder in the four deaths and 25 counts of aggravated assault. His trial had been scheduled to start in mid-October in Columbia County, about 100 miles from where the shooting happened, after the judge agreed to a defense request for a change of venue.

• A jury in March convicted his father, Colin Gray, on charges including second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter, and he is scheduled to be sentenced next week. Prosecutors said the elder Gray gave his son the assault-style rifle used to open fire at the school.
• An investigator testified during Colin Gray's trial that he had been aware that his son's mental health had deteriorated and sought help from a counseling service weeks before the shooting, citing anger, anxiety, and volatility. But the father never followed through on getting help for his son, the investigator said.
• Teachers Richard "Ricky" Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53, and students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14, died in the shooting. Another teacher and eight more students were wounded, seven of them hit by gunfire.

• Breanna Schermerhorn, whose son Mason was killed, told the judge she does not forgive Colt Gray. She said that while adults around him missed multiple warning signs, he was the one who decided to bring a gun to school and to pull the trigger, saying, "Those decisions were his and his alone."
• Shayna Aspinwall, Richard Aspinwall's wife, told the judge the "grief of losing him is constant" and lamented that the lives of her daughters, who were 2 and 5 when their father died, will be "forever marked by his absence." She asked the judge to sentence Colt Gray to life without the possibility of parole.
• Shooting survivors said they struggled with panic attacks and felt like they couldn't be normal teens anymore, CNN reports. I want to start off by saying I forgive you," Hayden Bowen told Colt Gray. "Not for you, but for me and my peace." Nautica Walton, who was shot in the leg, said Gray had stolen her happiness and the "innocence of so many kids in that classroom." She told him: "I hate everything about you. I hate the scars you left on my body. I hate that you took innocent lives in front of innocent people. Most of all, I hate that I let you live in my mind."