Colin Gray trial: Case turned over to jury for deliberations

Name: Apalachee shooting trial: Colin Gray case goes to jury
Uploaded: 2026-03-02T06:11:24-05:00
Description: The jury has been handed the case in the trial of Colin Gray, the father of the accused deadly Apalachee High School mass shooter. Gray is accused of providing his 13-year-old son with the rifle use to kill four people.

Apalachee shooting trial: Colin Gray case goes to jury

The jury has been handed the case in the trial of Colin Gray, the father of the accused deadly Apalachee High School mass shooter. Gray is accused of providing his 13-year-old son with the rifle use to kill four people.

BARROW COUNTY, Ga. - Closing arguments ended Monday in the trial of Colin Gray, the Barrow County father accused of enabling the weapon access that prosecutors say led to the deadly shooting at Apalachee High School. The case has now been turned over to the jury for deliberation, which will begin on Tuesday morning.

What we know:

The court spent Monday morning addressing critical "housekeeping" matters during a charging conference. In this phase, the judge and attorneys finalize the specific legal instructions and guidelines that the jury must follow when determining a verdict. A key point of discussion during the conference was the evidence regarding the provision of a firearm to a minor—a central component of the state's case against Gray.

"For 41 seconds. Those 41 seconds forever altered the lives of the students of Apalachee High School, their parents, and everyone in this community," state prosecutors said in the closing arguments. "But his father, Colin, the man he lived with, bears responsibility, too, for the murder of Mason Schermerhorn, Christian Angulo, Cristina Irimie, and Richard Aspinwall at Richard Apalachee High School."

Prosecutors once again showed jurors body cam and text messages, asserting that Gray knew his son was in trouble and should not have bought him an assault rifle.

The defense implied that the state is going down a slippery slope by prosecuting Gray, saying he was a single dad who was doing his best to raise three kids. The defense told jurors that one person is responsible for the shooting — Colt Gray.

"This young man [Colt Gray] right here. This is the person who went into the high school and shot and killed four people he didn't even know," the defense said.

Jury deliberations are set to begin at 9 a.m. on Tuesday.

Gray, 55, is charged with 29 felonies, including second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter and cruelty to children. Authorities allege his teenage son, Colt Gray, carried out the Sept. 4, 2024 attack using an AR-15-style rifle his father had given him months earlier as a Christmas gift. Two teachers and two students were killed. Nine others were injured.

The case is being closely watched nationwide because it seeks to hold a parent criminally responsible in connection with a school shooting committed by a child. In Michigan, the only other parents to face trial under similar circumstances were convicted of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to prison terms of at least a decade.

Charging conference for Colin Gray

A charging conference for the father of accused Apalachee High School shooter Colt Gray took place on Monday morning. Closing arguments in the trial of Colin Gray should take place Monday afternoon.

What they're saying:

Over nearly two weeks of testimony in Barrow County Superior Court, jurors have heard sharply conflicting accounts about what warning signs existed and how seriously they were treated.

The panel — brought in daily from Hall County to avoid local influence — listened to emotional testimony from Colt Gray’s mother and sister. Marcee Gray told jurors she urged her estranged husband to remove firearms from their son’s access as the teen struggled with anger and violent ideation. The sister testified her father was aware of her brother’s fascination with past school shooters but allowed a rifle to remain in his bedroom.

Colin Gray took the stand in his own defense, describing himself as a father trying to hold his family together while navigating marital breakdown and his son’s behavioral challenges. He said he bonded with Colt through hunting and target practice and maintained strict household rules requiring firearms to remain unloaded.

"He had a healthy respect for weapons," Gray testified.

During cross-examination, Barrow County District Attorney Brad Smith confronted Gray with school discipline records, prior threats reported to law enforcement and the father’s own online searches seeking help for a "troubled teen." Smith pressed him about whether a child described as volatile and anxious should have access to a semiautomatic rifle.

Prosecutors also presented surveillance footage from inside the school, financial records documenting the rifle purchase and evidence they described as a paper trail of ammunition and tactical accessories. Some of those items were recovered after the shooting.

If convicted on all counts, Gray faces a potential sentence that could amount to decades in prison.

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