Georgia · Winder, Barrow County · Crime & Courts

Apalachee High School Shooting: Colt Gray Sentenced to Life Without Parole in Winder, GA

A judge in Barrow County ordered the teenager who killed two teachers and two students at Apalachee High School to spend the rest of his life in prison with no chance of parole. He was 14 on the day of the shooting and 16 when the sentence came down. He had already pleaded guilty to all 55 counts against him, so the only question left was whether he should ever be released.

What sentence did Colt Gray receive?

Colt Gray was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, that killed two teachers and two students.

Barrow County Superior Court Judge Nicholas Primm announced the sentence on Tuesday, July 28, 2026, at the close of a three-day hearing, CNN reported. Gray was 16 and did not appear to react as it was read, and he had declined the chance to address the court.

The Associated Press reported that murder carries a mandatory life sentence in Georgia, which left Primm with one decision: whether the teenager should ever become eligible for parole. He decided that he should not.

Families of those killed and survivors of the shooting gasped and cried out in the courtroom as the sentence was delivered, according to CNN and NBC News.

Who were the four people killed at Apalachee High School?

Two teachers and two students were killed on Sept. 4, 2024. Their names and ages are carried by the AP, NBC News and WSB-TV.

Aspinwall taught math and coached football, the AP reported. His wife, Shayna Aspinwall, told the court their daughters were 2 and 5 years old when he was killed, NBC News reported.

What did the judge say from the bench?

WSB-TV published a transcript of Primm's remarks. He began by noting that he had never before had to sentence a 16-year-old, and never for something done at 14.

He set out the constitutional test he was applying. Appellate courts treat children differently from adults at sentencing, he said, and the U.S. Supreme Court disfavors life without parole for juveniles except in the rarest cases — permitting it only where the crime reflects permanent incorrigibility rather than what he called transient immaturity.

He then told Gray where he had landed: "Your crimes do reflect permanent incorrigibility, and I will send you to life without parole for each of the malice murders that you committed."

Primm said the attack was not driven by fear, anger or hatred. "Four lives were stolen, two of them really just beginning," he said, adding that Gray had not been bullied at the school and did not know anyone there. "It was done for the infamy of it."

He also acknowledged the failures around the teenager, in remarks carried by CBS News Atlanta: "I also recognize that you were failed by each of your parents, you were failed by your extended family, to a certain extent you were failed by a society that can't stop propagating this misguided value in online cultures and social media rather than making genuine interpersonal connections and relationships." He followed it immediately: "But that failure does not absolve you from who you chose to idolize, worship, and become."

On the question of premeditation, he called the planning "deliberate, contemplated evil," per the WSB-TV transcript, and said Gray had studied the trials of other mass shooters and had known that several of them received life without parole.

He closed without offering comfort. "It's only a measure of closure," he said. "The slain will not return to life. The injured will not forget their wounds, and a 16-year-old, 16-year-old boy, will live and die in prison."

What did Colt Gray plead guilty to?

He pleaded guilty on Friday, July 24, 2026, to all 55 counts against him, including murder. CBS News Atlanta reported that the counts included four of malice murder.

NBC News reported that he entered the plea without any agreement with prosecutors, and that his trial had been scheduled to begin in mid-October. Because there was no deal, the judge alone decided the parole question after hearing the evidence.

Gray was 14 on the day of the shooting and was charged as an adult. CBS News Atlanta reported that Georgia law barred prosecutors from seeking the death penalty because of his age at the time, leaving a range from life with parole to life without it.

What did the families and survivors tell the court?

Victim impact statements were delivered on Friday, July 24, the day of the plea. The AP reported that nearly all of those who spoke asked Primm to rule out parole.

Shayna Aspinwall said the shooting left "a life sentence of grief and trauma for those left behind," in words carried by the AP and NBC News. She said her daughters' lives would be "forever marked by his absence," per NBC News.

Breanna Schermerhorn, whose son Mason was killed, told the court that even if the adults around Gray had failed him, the choice to kill was his. "Those decisions were his and his alone," she said, per NBC News.

Ismael Angulo Jr., the oldest sibling of Christian Angulo, drew the contrast he lives with. "The defendant's family will still get to see their son, talk to him and know he is breathing," he said, according to CNN. "My mother (and) my father don't get that privilege. The only way to visit Christian now is by standing over his grave." He added: "There is no fairness in that reality."

Nautica Walton, a ninth-grader at the time of the shooting who was shot in the leg, addressed Gray directly, CNN reported. "I hate everything about you," she said. "I hate the scars you left on my body. I hate that you took innocent lives in front of innocent people. Most of all, I hate that I let you live in my mind."

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What did prosecutors argue?

District Attorney Brad Smith asked for life without parole and told the judge the attack was carried out for fame inside an online subculture that celebrates mass shooters, CNN reported.

"We've seen no evidence he has any ability to develop a conscience or any ability ever to fully value human life," Smith said in his closing, per the AP, and he argued that Gray "cannot be in society."

Investigators testified that Gray talked online with members of what witnesses called the "true crime community" about gaining notoriety through a school shooting, the AP reported. Smith framed the attack as one step in a longer plan: "The shooting was not the culmination of the plan. The shooting was just one of the steps of the plan. The plan was ultimate and lifelong fame inside of the TCC."

Prosecutors said Gray deliberately planted references to earlier mass killings — Smith called them "Easter eggs" — expecting them to be raised in court one day and keep his name circulating, per the AP and CBS News Atlanta.

Recordings of jail phone calls between Gray and his mother, Marcee Gray, were played in court. He asked her to look up what people online were saying about him and reacted with excitement to drawings and comments about him, the AP reported. In one call he said he was "in the big leagues," per CNN and CBS News Atlanta.

CNN reported that Marcee Gray has not been accused of any crime in the case, and that Smith said she was not charged: she did not have custody of her son, and the firearms were not in her possession when the attack happened.

Investigators also pointed to his own writing. More than a year before the attack he wrote on Discord, "(I) wanna make history," adding that he wanted people to remember the pain he caused and to research him for hours, according to CNN. Primm quoted that line back to him at sentencing.

What did the defense argue?

Defense attorney W. Charlton Allen asked for life with the possibility of parole, telling Primm his client was "not irretrievably broken," per the AP. Denying parole outright, he argued, would remove "an opportunity of hope" and with it the ability to change.

Allen also argued that his client had less stability than he needed and had found acceptance in an online community that he was not getting at home, the AP reported.

Gray's maternal grandmother, Debbie Polhamus, testified that his parents failed him and that she had pressed them to get him help without result. "I tried to help Colt because nobody else was helping him," she said, per the AP. She told the court she visits him weekly and that he has improved with treatment and medication.

Forensic psychologist Kevin Richards testified that paranoia, depression and anxiety were made worse by neglect and abuse at home and by a fixation on mass shooters, CNN reported. On cross-examination Richards said Gray had exaggerated some symptoms, and found no evidence of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or hallucinations, per CNN and CBS News Atlanta.

Candice Broce, who leads Georgia's Division of Family & Children Services, testified that Gray was placed in state care because of concerns about his mother's contact with him, and that after a no-contact order and the start of medication, staff described a change in him, per the AP and CNN.

What happened at the school on Sept. 4, 2024?

The shooting took place at Apalachee High School in Winder, the seat of Barrow County. CNN describes it as the deadliest school shooting in Georgia's history.

CNN reported that school officials and resource officers set out that morning to intercept the then-14-year-old over comments he had made, but confused him with a different student who had a similar name. He was armed with an AR-15-style rifle brought onto campus in a backpack, and he surrendered to police the same day.

Two teachers and two students were killed. Gray has been held in custody since the day of the shooting, CNN reported.

How many people were wounded?

Everyone else who was hurt survived. Accounts of the number wounded differ.

The AP and NBC News put it at one other teacher and eight other students wounded, with seven of those nine struck by gunfire. CNN reports nine others wounded. WSB-TV describes three other students and a teacher who were shot as having survived.

The four deaths are not in dispute.

What is the separate case against the shooter's father?

This is a different defendant, a different conviction and a different case file. Nothing in it changes the sentence imposed on Colt Gray.

Colin Gray, 55, the shooter's father, was convicted by a jury in March 2026 over the rifle he gave his son as a Christmas gift. The jury returned guilty verdicts on 27 counts. They include second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter and cruelty to children, CBS News Atlanta reported.

Primm, the same judge, sentenced him on Thursday, July 30, 2026, to 15 years in prison, NBC News reported. Al Jazeera (Reuters and Associated Press copy) reported that prosecutors and some families had sought far longer and the defense had asked for 10 years in prison and 10 years of probation.

"It is clear you failed as a parent," Primm told him, per CBS News Atlanta. The judge separated the two men's conduct explicitly, telling the father, per Al Jazeera, "I still have to distinguish your acts from the malignant heart and the acts that Colt Gray committed."

Colin Gray's attorneys then filed a motion asking for a new trial. CBS News Atlanta reported the motion was filed on a Wednesday, and argues the verdict was "contrary to evidence and without evidence to support it," was "strongly against the weight of the evidence" and was "contrary to law and the principles of justice and equity." ABC News also reported the filing.

That motion concerns Colin Gray's own convictions only. It does not ask any court to reopen, shorten or set aside the life-without-parole sentence given to his son.

What we don't know yet

Frequently asked questions

What sentence did Colt Gray receive for the Apalachee High School shooting?
Life in prison with no possibility of parole. Judge Nicholas Primm of Barrow County Superior Court imposed life without parole on each count of malice murder. The Associated Press reported that murder carries a mandatory life sentence in Georgia, so the only question left to the judge was whether Gray should ever become eligible for parole.

When was Colt Gray sentenced?
Tuesday, July 28, 2026, at the end of a three-day sentencing hearing in Barrow County. He had pleaded guilty the previous Friday, July 24, 2026.

Who were the four people killed at Apalachee High School?
Richard "Ricky" Aspinwall, 39, a math teacher and football coach; Cristina Irimie, 53, a math teacher; and two 14-year-old students, Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo. Those names and ages are reported by The Associated Press, NBC News and WSB-TV.

How old was Colt Gray when the shooting happened?
He was 14 on Sept. 4, 2024, and he was 16 at his sentencing. He was charged as an adult.

Did Colt Gray plead guilty or go to trial?
He pleaded guilty to all 55 counts, including murder. NBC News reported that he entered the plea without reaching a deal with prosecutors and that his trial had been set to start in mid-October, which left the parole question to the judge.

Which judge sentenced Colt Gray?
Barrow County Superior Court Judge Nicholas Primm. He also presided over the separate sentencing of the shooter's father two days later.

How many people were wounded at Apalachee High School?
The Associated Press and NBC News put it at one other teacher and eight other students wounded, with seven of those nine struck by gunfire. CNN reports nine others wounded. WSB-TV describes three other students and a teacher who were shot as having survived.

Could Colt Gray have received the death penalty?
No. CBS News Atlanta reported that because he was 14 at the time, Georgia law barred prosecutors from seeking it. Judge Primm also noted from the bench that the U.S. Supreme Court has held the Eighth Amendment prohibits the death penalty for juveniles.

What happened to Colin Gray, the shooter's father?
He is a separate defendant in a separate case. A jury convicted him in March 2026, and on July 30, 2026 Judge Primm sentenced him to 15 years in prison. The jury returned guilty verdicts on 27 counts. They include second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter and cruelty to children, CBS News Atlanta reported.

Is Colin Gray's new-trial motion part of Colt Gray's sentencing?
No. They are two different defendants, two different convictions and two different cases. The motion asks for a new trial for Colin Gray on his own charges. It does not seek to reopen, reduce or disturb the life-without-parole sentence imposed on Colt Gray.