Apalachee High School shooting suspect Colt Gray set to enter new plea at hearing
Colt Gray, the teen accused of killing four students and injuring nine others in the 2024 shooting at Georgia's Apalachee High School, is set to return to court on Friday morning for a "non-negotiated" plea hearing.
Documents filed earlier in July in Barrow County Superior Court in Winder, Georgia, revealed that Gray could change his previous "not guilty" plea, avoiding a jury trial that was set to begin in the fall.
The "non-negotiated" plea would mean that Gray would admit guilt to one or all of his charges without a pre-arranged deal between his attorneys and the prosecution.
Gray, who was charged as an adult, is facing a total of 55 counts, including malice murder, aggravated battery, and aggravated assault. He faces up to 30 years in prison for the second-degree murder charges and up to 180 years in total.
The hearing comes months after Gray's attorneys indicated that they were attempting to negotiate a plea deal for the teen. This week is the deadline set by Judge Nicholas Primm for a possible plea. The plea hearing could continue into the following week if necessary.
In June, Primm ordered Gray's trial be moved to Columbia County, arguing that the "widespread local, statewide and national coverage of the case" would make it difficult to find unbiased jurors in Barrow County, where the shooting took place.
A father and son facing charges
Colt Gray's father, Colin Gray, was convicted on 27 counts, including second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter, and cruelty to children in March. He was the first parent charged in connection with a mass school shooting in Georgia and the third time a parent was charged for their connection to a mass shooting allegedly carried out by their child.
Prosecutors claimed that Colin Gray gave his son the gun used in the shooting at his high school as a Christmas gift, and allowed him access to it and ammunition despite warning signs that the teen's mental state was deteriorating. The prosecution pointed to evidence of what they called an obsession with school shooters, including a "shrine" Colt Gray built to Nikolas Cruz, convicted of the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida.
Colin Gray had admitted to giving his son the rifle, but said he had hoped to bond with Colt while hunting and at the gun range. His sentencing hearing is scheduled to take place on July 30.
On Sept. 4 2024, investigators say then-14-year-old Gray carried a semiautomatic assault-style rifle onto the school bus, with the barrel sticking out of his book bag, wrapped up in a poster board. He left his second-period class and then emerged from a bathroom with the rifle before shooting people in a classroom and hallways.
Agents with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation have previously testified in court to finding notebooks in which Colt Gray wrote about his plans to commit the shooting, including a note to "shoot the teacher first."
Four people, 14-year-old students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo and teachers Richard Aspinwall and Cristina Irimie, were killed in the shooting. Another teacher and eight students were wounded.
Colt Gray surrendered to school resource officers at the scene. He has remained in custody ever since.
Jared Eggleston and Cara Tabachnick contributed to this report.
