ATLANTA (AP) — A Georgia judge has scheduled a plea and sentencing hearing later this month for a teenager accused of a deadly shooting spree at Apalachee High School, which resulted in the deaths of four individuals in September 2024.
The teenage suspect, Colt Gray, 16, initially entered a not guilty plea to charges that include murder. The tragic incident claimed the lives of two students and two teachers, also injuring several others, at the school located northeast of Atlanta.
According to a court filing on Friday, the judge presiding over the case has scheduled a “Non-Negotiated Plea and Sentencing Hearing” to commence on July 24. The judge previously indicated that Gray must inform the state and the court if he wishes to change his plea to guilty before the trial, with a deadline set for this Wednesday.
In this case, a non-negotiated plea implies that there is no agreement between the defense and the state regarding sentencing. Unlike a plea deal, which involves a prearranged sentence between prosecutors and the defendant in exchange for a guilty plea, here the judge has the sole authority to determine the sentence. The judge’s decision will follow presentations from both sides, summarizing the case and offering sentencing recommendations.
Attempts to reach Colt Gray’s attorney for comment on Sunday were unsuccessful as there was no immediate response to an email request.
Gray’s trial had been set to begin in mid-October in Columbia County, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) from Barrow County where the shooting happened, after the judge agreed to a defense request to change the venue.
Gray’s father, Colin Gray, was convicted by a jury in March on charges including second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter after prosecutors said he gave his teenage son the assault-style rifle used to open fire at the school. The elder Gray is set to be sentenced later this month.
The Sept. 4, 2024, shooting killed teachers Richard “Ricky” Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53, and students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14. Another teacher and eight more students were wounded, seven of them hit by gunfire. Colt Gray, who was 14 at the time of the shooting, was charged as an adult with 55 total counts, including murder, cruelty to children and 25 counts of aggravated assault.
Investigators testified that Colt Gray carried the rifle given to him by his father onto the school bus with the barrel wrapped in a poster board. They said the teenager left his second-period class and emerged from a bathroom with the rifle, shooting people in a classroom and hallway.
Investigators have said the teenager carefully plotted the shooting at the high school of 1,900 students. A Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent testified that the boy left a notebook in his classroom with step-by-step instructions and a diagram to prepare for the assault, including an estimate that he could kill as many as 26 people and wound as many as 13 others.
Colt and Colin Gray were interviewed by sheriff’s deputies about an online threat linked to Colt Gray in May 2023. Colt Gray denied making the threat at the time. He skipped 8th grade, enrolled as a freshman at Apalachee after the academic year began, and then skipped multiple days of school.
Family members had been seeking psychological help for Colt Gray before the shooting, but it appeared he never saw a counselor.
Colt’s mother, Marcee Gray, who was separated from Colin Gray, told investigators that she had argued with Colin Gray weeks before the shooting, asking him to secure his guns and restrict Colt’s access. Instead, over time, he bought the boy ammunition, a gun sight and other shooting accessories, records show.
Colt Gray even created a shrine in his bedroom to Nikolas Cruz, the shooter in the 2018 massacre at Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, prosecutors said.