Georgia high school shooter pleads guilty to 55 counts, including murder, faces life in prison

The Georgia teen who killed four people in a shooting at Apalachee High School in 2024 pleaded guilty Friday to 55 counts, including murder. He now faces life in prison.

Colt Gray, who was 14 at the time of the shooting, entered the plea Friday, The Associated Press reported. He had previously pleaded not guilty. His plea was not part of a deal with prosecutors.

Gray’s trial was set to start in October. He was charged as an adult because of the severity of the crime, which took place in Winder, about 45 miles northeast of Atlanta.

His Sept. 4, 2024, rampage at the school left two teachers and two students dead. One teacher and eight other students were injured, seven of them by gunfire, AP reported.

In March, a jury convicted Colin Gray, Colt’s father, on 27 charges, including second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter, reckless conduct and cruelty to children. He had given his son the AR-15-style rifle used in the shooting as a birthday gift.

Colin Gray is the second parent in U.S. history to be charged in connection with a child’s school shooting and the first to be convicted of murder for a child’s actions.

He is scheduled to be sentenced July 30 and faces a maximum of 180 years in prison, according to media reports.

The minimum sentence for Colt Gray is life in prison, although Barrow County Superior Court Judge Nicholas Primm will decide whether he will be eligible for parole after hearing victim statements and arguments from both sides.

Friday’s proceedings included emotional testimony from investigators and victims’ families. One sheriff’s investigator read portions of a notebook in which Gray wrote, “Save me from this cruel world. I beg you,” CNN reported.

A notebook left in a classroom on the day of the shooting contained detailed plans for the attack.

His father’s trial earlier this year revealed the teen’s tumultuous upbringing, including not being enrolled in school during his eighth-grade year and that he had attended only a few days at Apalachee.

Breanna Schermerhorn, mother of victim Mason Schermerhorn, said she had “no doubt” her son would have befriended Gray “if Colt had actually attended the school, as he should have.”

Several survivors shared ongoing struggles resulting from the attack, including panic attacks and physical pain from their injuries. 

“You took away the innocence of so many kids in that classroom that day, just because of what you were going through,” said Nautica Walton, who was shot in the leg.

Shayna Aspinwall, who lost her husband, Richard, in the attack, asked Primm to sentence Gray to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

“It is a life sentence of grief and trauma for those left behind,” said Aspinwall, who is the mother of two daughters who were 2 and 5 at the time of the shooting.

Image: Colt Gray enters plea (Screenshot via YouTube, Court TV)