WINDER, Ga. (Court TV) — As a school shooter pleaded guilty to killing two students and two teachers, surviving victims stood in court to confront him.
Colt Gray sits in court after pleading guilty on July 24, 2026. (Court TV)
Colt Gray, 16, pleaded guilty to all 55 charges he faced — including four counts of malice murder and four counts of felony murder — for the shooting at Apalachee High School on Sept. 4, 2024. The shooting killed 14-year-olds Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, as well as teachers Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irmie, 53. Nine others were injured in the shooting. Gray changed his plea with no agreement in place with prosecutors, meaning Judge Nicholas Primm will have the discretion to sentence him to up to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Gray’s sentencing began immediately after he entered his guilty plea. The sentencing hearing, expected to span several days, began with prosecutors inviting surviving victims and family members of those killed to deliver impact statements.
“I hate you,” said one of the teens who survived the shooting. “I’m mad at you because you had options. You had other options besides going in and killing a bunch of innocent people that did absolutely nothing to you.”
“I have no doubt in my mind, if Colt had actually attended school, as he should have, that Mason would have befriended him,” Schermerhorn’s mother said. “Every morning I wake up to the reality that my son is gone. Every night I go to bed knowing that there is nothing I can do to change it. I have lived 688 days so far of a sentence with no parole, and that’s what he should receive as well.”
Gray showed no reaction as the emotional statements detailed the impact the shooting had on the entire community. “No sentence the court imposes can bring my husband back,” Aspinwall’s wife, Shayna Aspinwall, said. “Nothing can restore the life he should have lived or the years we should have shared, but I ask the court to recognize the profound and permanent harm this crime has caused. The loss extends far beyond one day. It is a life sentence of grief and trauma for those left behind.”
While prosecutors said they don’t plan to play the surveillance video showing the shooting itself, instead handing the evidence to the judge to review on a flash drive, they had the case’s lead investigator walk through what happened on Sept. 4.
Barrow County Sheriff’s Office investigator Jason Smith said that Gray was in his second-period class for approximately nine minutes before telling his teacher he was leaving to see a crisis counselor. Rather than go to the counselor’s office, Gray went to a student bathroom, where he sat “in a stall, inside the bathroom, preparing” for the shooting, Smith said.
When Smith interviewed Gray after the shooting, the teenager denied having a plan. “Colt indicated that it was spontaneous, it was a last-minute thing, that he came into school that morning, had heard voices and just on the way to get help from the crisis counselor, he just decided to conduct the shooting,” Smith said. But the teenager’s cellphone and a binder that Gray had been writing in told a different story. The notes, which date back months, indicate what Smith called “a pretty detailed plan.”
One page has what looks like a map of his second-period classroom, with the words “I’m not a killer” and “Suicide? 50/50 Live” written alongside it. One page appears to calculate possible casualties: “Hallway: I’m thinking 3-4 people killed. Injured? 4-5. Classroom: 15-17 killed. Injured? 2-3.” Another page appears to list the steps he planned to take: “So I’ll set my bag down, Open It, Put on vest! Take a moment or two to stay calm and really think about if I wanna do this. Take out the poster covering the rifle. Take out rifle and prop it up against stall.” The writing, Smith said, mirrored the plan as it was carried out.
A defense filing indicates the defense plans to call several expert witnesses to present mitigating evidence in the case, likely focusing on Gray’s mental health at the time of the shooting. The sentencing hearing is expected to continue into next week.
The defendant’s father, Colin Gray, was convicted of 29 charges relating to the shooting after giving his son the rifle he used and ignoring multiple warning signs. His sentencing is scheduled to begin on July 30.
