The high-profile trial of Colin Gray is underway in Barrow County, Georgia, as opening statements begin.
Gray faces 29 charges, including second-degree murder and manslaughter, for allegedly providing his son, Colt Gray, with the AR-15 style rifle used in the 2024 Apalachee High School shooting.
Prosecutors argue this could be a precedent-setting case, while victims’ families seek accountability and the defense prepares to present its case.
Several witnesses took the stand Monday, including the teacher who first alerted staff at the school that she thought the younger Gray had a gun in her classroom.
Suzanne Harris, a computer science teacher at Apalachee High, said she noticed an object sticking out of Colt’s bookbag wrapped in posterboard, clothing, and a toboggan, which she found “odd” given that it was summer.
Harris notified one of the school’s counselors after Gray allegedly asked her about active shooter drills. He was new to Apalachee and had only been in class a handful of times.
“I just felt a chill in my body,'” she told prosecutors. “I felt like something was wrong.”
Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith, who emotionally recounted the moments as he responded to the scene at the school.
“The hardest thing I’ve had to do in 25 years,” he said acknowledging his time in law enforcement, “is to tell two families that they lost their babies.”
14-year-olds Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo were killed.
53-year-old Cristina Irimie, a math teacher, and 39-year-old Richard Aspinwall, an assistant football coach and math teacher were also killed.
Colin Gray and his son, Colt Gray, were both indicted in the Sept. 4 shooting that also injured nine others. The Winder man is the first adult known to be charged for their child’s involvement in a school shooting in Georgia.
Prosecutors argue that Colin Gray was aware that his son’s mental health had deteriorated in the weeks before the shooting. A year prior, they say he gave the teen an assault-style weapon as a Christmas gift and purchased a laser sight, tactical vest, and ammunition for him — the same used in the Apalachee shooting.
Gray was also aware that his son was fascinated by school shooters and had created a shrine above his home computer dedicated to the gunman behind the 2018 Parkland, Florida, school massacre, prosecutors said.
Colt Gray faces 55 charges, including four counts of murder and 25 counts of aggravated assault. Although he has pleaded not guilty, his attorney suggested in a May hearing that Gray might be prepared to change his plea to guilty after a psychological evaluation is completed.
New lawyers have started representing the teen. At a brief hearing in December, the judge said a status hearing in the case would be held in mid-March.
