Apalachee High School shooter in Georgia sentenced to life in prison
The incident occurred in September 2024 in Winder, Georgia. Two students, Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, and two teachers, Cristina Irimie and Richard Aspinwall, were killed in the shooting, while nine others were injured.
Colt Gray in Winder, Georgia/ Mike Stewart
Colt Gray, the teenager from Georgia who killed four people in a school shooting, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Gray, now 16, pleaded guilty to all 55 charges he faced, so the case proceeded directly to sentencing.
During the hearing, Judge Nicholas Primm imposed four life sentences without the possibility of parole, in addition to additional penalties for the other crimes. Georgia law prohibits imposing the death penalty on individuals who were under 18 at the time of the crime.
The incident occurred in September 2024 at Apalachee High School in Winder. Two students, Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, and two teachers, Cristina Irimie and Richard Aspinwall, were killed in the shooting, while nine other people were injured.
According to the investigation, Gray entered the school armed with a semi-automatic rifle and opened fire on students and teachers before being apprehended by authorities. At the time of the shooting, the young man was 14 years old.
During the sentencing hearing, the prosecution played recordings of phone calls made from jail in which Gray discussed the media attention the case would receive and how he would be remembered. For prosecutors, those conversations reinforced the conclusion that the teenager acted out of a desire for notoriety—an argument the judge echoed when explaining the sentence.
"This has been a very dark place that this trial has taken everyone, and none of us should have had to go there, but we did. Hopefully this is the end of it -- or -- the end of this week will be the end," Brad Smith, Barrow County District Attorney, said, referring to the fact that Colt Gray's father, Colin, will be sentenced later this week.
"The first thing I found out when the shooting happened was that he was 14, and it just hit me like a ton of bricks," Smith added.
Regarding Colin Gray, prosecutors argued that he allowed his son to have access to the rifle used in the shooting despite warning signs regarding his behavior and mental health. In March 2026, a jury found him guilty of several crimes, including second-degree murder and manslaughter.
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