Texas felon charged with threatening Georgia judge during Apalachee High School shooting hearing

A convicted felon from Texas is facing federal charges after prosecutors say he threatened a Georgia judge and district attorney's office employees on the day of the sentencing hearing for Colin Gray, the father of Apalachee High School shooter Colt Gray.

Brandon Dontrail Scroggins, a 39-year-old resident of Abilene, Texas, was charged on Aug. 7 with transmitting interstate communications containing threats to injure another person, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia said.

According to prosecutors, Scroggins called the Barrow County District Attorney's Office on the morning of July 30, 2026, telling the receptionist that "he was coming to 'take out' Barrow County because of a purported injustice." He then allegedly left a voicemail in which he threatened to come to the state to harm the office's employees and their children.

Scroggins also called the chambers of Judge Nicholas Primm, the judge who oversaw Colin and Colt Gray's hearings, and left a threatening voicemail, officials said. During that call, prosecutors said he also warned the judge's assistant to keep away from the judge "because Judge Primm and 'everything he love[s]' is 'dead.'"

"Scroggins allegedly threatened violence against the prosecutors and judge who were tasked with meting out justice for individuals responsible for the horrific mass shooting that claimed four innocent lives at Apalachee High School," said U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg. "Public servants deserve to work free of intimidation, and anyone who threatens to harm them will be prosecuted."

Officials say Scroggins also faces charges in Alabama for threatening a federal judge as well as in Texas for other harassing phone calls.

He is currently in the custody of the United States Marshals Service in Texas waiting to be extradited to Georgia and Alabama for further proceedings.