Colin Gray during his sentencing hearing at Barrow county superior court on 30 July 2026, in Winder, Georgia. Photograph: Hyosub Shin/Pool Atlanta Journal-Constitution/AP View image in fullscreen Colin Gray during his sentencing hearing at Barrow county superior court on 30 July 2026, in Winder, Georgia. Photograph: Hyosub Shin/Pool Atlanta Journal-Constitution/AP Georgia high school shooting Father of US teen school shooter sentenced to 15 years for providing gun Colin Gray is the father of Colton, who was 14 when he opened fire at Apalachee high school in Georgia in 2024
Prefer the Guardian on Google The father of a teenage student who killed two teachers and two classmates in a Georgia high school shooting two years ago was sentenced on Thursday to 15 years in prison for providing his son with the weapon used in the attack.
Colin Gray’s offenses, the judge Nicholas Primm said during the sentencing hearing in Winder, were crimes of negligence “tethered to the tragedy committed by his son” Colton, who was 14 when he entered Apalachee high school on 4 September 2024 and opened fire.
Primm said Gray, who was convicted in March on charges of second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter, shared responsibility for the attack, having gifted his son the assault-style rifle as a Christmas present.
“My heart aches for everyone that was there that day, for all of you that have been impacted by it,” said Primm, a Barrow county superior court judge.
“But the law requires that I set aside emotion. I don’t get to sentence with passion. I have the nearly impossible task of sentencing you without passion despite the immeasurable heartache that you caused.”
On Tuesday, Primm sentenced Colton, now 16, to life in prison without parole for the murders of teachers Richard Aspinwall, 39; Cristina Irimie, 53; and 14-year-old students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo. Another teacher and eight students were hurt, seven of them wounded by gunfire.
Colton had entered into a plea deal with prosecutors admitting guilt on 55 counts and avoiding a scheduled October trial while leaving sentencing up to the judge.
Brian Hobbs, Gray’s defense attorney, asked Primm for a sentence of 10 years for his client followed by 10 more of probation; prosecutors said he deserved 80 years in prison.
He is one of a handful of American parents who have been criminally charged after their children were accused in shootings. A jury in March found Gray guilty of second-degree murder in the deaths of the two students. Georgia law defines second-degree murder as causing the death of a child by committing the crime of cruelty to children.
Gray, 55, was also found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the killings of Aspinwall and Irimie.
In impact statements, family members of the people who died, and other victims of the shooting, condemned what they said were Gray’s failures as a parent.
“This wasn’t unavoidable. This was preventable. Because of the choices made inside the Gray household, four families were handed life sentences of grief,” Breanna Schermerhorn, the mother of Mason, told the court.
Shayna Aspinwall, whose husband was killed, said the sentence must take into account “the families left behind who must carry the grief and trauma for the rest of our lives”.
“He did not pull the trigger but purchased and left a firearm accessible to a minor,” she said.
Prosecutors said Gray gave his son the rifle as a Christmas gift along with ammunition, a gun sigh…