Jury selection date, venue set in trial of accused Apalachee High School shooter Colt Gray

Colt Gray, the teenager accused in the deadly shooting at Apalachee High School, is set to be tried this year in Georgia's Columbia County.

In an order filed on Wednesday, Barrow County Superior Court Judge Nicholas Primm said that he has received the approval to move the trial to the East Georgia county and set a date for jury selection. 

Primm had previously granted Gray's motion for a change of venue, citing the media coverage and attention on the the case.

"The nonstop coverage, coupled with the widespread pretrial publicity, makes it clear that a trial with Barrow County jurors would be inherently prejudicial," Primm wrote in the order filed in June.

According to the new court documents, jury selection will begin on Oct. 13 with qualified jurors from Columbia County. Primm wrote that he does not plan to sequester the selected jurors.

"It is anticipated that the trial shall not exceed three weeks in duration," the judge wrote.

All pretrial proceedings will remain in Barrow County.

In March, a jury found Colt's father, Colin Gray, guilty on 27 counts, including second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter, and cruelty to children in connection with the shooting at the Barrow County school.

Investigators claim the then-14-year-old Gray carefully planned the Sept. 4, 2024, shooting, boarding his school bus with a semiautomatic, assault-style rifle in his book bag. He left his second-period class and emerged from a bathroom with the gun and shot people in a classroom and hallways, investigators say.

Gray surrendered to school resource officers within minutes after a report of shots fired went out, and was taken into custody, where he has remained ever since.