The daddy of a Georgia teenager who carried out a lethal mass capturing at his highschool was sentenced to fifteen years in jail for second-degree homicide and different costs after a jury found him criminally culpable for the assault.
Colin Grey, 55, admitted to offering the assault rifle utilized by his then-14-year-old son within the September 2024 capturing at Apalachee Excessive College, which killed two students and two teachers.
His son, 16-year-old Colt Grey, pleaded responsible to all 55 counts towards him, together with homicide and aggravated assault. Choose Nicholas Primm sentenced him to life in prison without parole on Tuesday.
Colin Grey, the daddy of Apalachee Excessive College capturing suspect Colt Grey, listens throughout his trial, Feb. 27, 2026, on the Barrow County Courthouse in Winder, Ga.
Hyosub Shin/Atlanta Journal-Structure through AP
The teenager’s father appeared within the Barrow County Courthouse earlier than the identical decide on Thursday to study his destiny. He confronted greater than 100 years in jail after being discovered responsible of 27 counts, together with second-degree homicide, involuntary manslaughter, cruelty to youngsters within the second diploma, and reckless conduct. The jury deliberated for fewer than two hours earlier than returning the responsible verdicts in March.
Colin Grey is the most recent dad or mum to be charged and convicted within the U.S. in reference to a mass capturing carried out by their baby. Choose Primm famous the novelty of the college capturing case, saying it is the primary of its form in Georgia and the second he is conscious of within the nation.
“What we’re actually referencing is that this new phenomenon of fogeys being charged at the side of crimes that their youngsters are committing,” Primm mentioned. “It is a divisive case.”
Primm mentioned the daddy was convicted as a result of “the warning lights have been flashing brighter and brighter” and he did not get his son assist or take away his entry to weapons.
“No dad or mum thinks that their baby goes to be the subsequent faculty shooter, however it turned increasingly apparent that one thing unhealthy was going to occur,” Primm mentioned.
The decide instructed Colin Grey that if he had used gun locks or eliminated the ammunition from his home, “you would not be right here at this time.”
Primm sentenced the daddy to fifteen years confinement for every second-degree homicide rely. These and lesser sentences on his different counts will run concurrent with each other, for a complete 15-year jail sentence, the decide mentioned.
“You did not intend to commit these crimes that you’ve got been convicted of, however the loss right here is profound,” Primm mentioned whereas handing down the sentence. “However I nonetheless have to differentiate your acts from the malignant coronary heart and the acts that Colt Grey dedicated upon the Apalachee faculty.”
District Legal professional Brad Smith, left, factors to a weapon that was displayed on the display throughout the first day of the trial of Colin Grey, the daddy of Apalachee Excessive College capturing suspect Colt Grey, February 16, 2026.
Jason Getz/AP
The protection requested for 10 years in jail in what legal professional Chris Hobbs known as the primary case of its form tried in Georgia, arguing that Colin Grey knew his son was struggling however misjudged the warning indicators.
“We perceive the gravity of this example. 4 individuals are gone, and nothing the courtroom can do at this time can change that. However the query at this time is narrower, and in some methods tougher — what does justice require when a father’s negligence and a son’s hid intent meet on a single morning?” Hobbs mentioned.
Prosecutors requested the decide that Colin Grey be sentenced to 80 years in jail, saying that he gave Colt Grey a gun months after regulation enforcement requested him to limit his son’s entry to weapons, and that the danger was “staring him within the face daily” within the type of a shrine to the shooter within the Parkland highschool bloodbath in his son’s bed room.
“This was the danger he was ignoring, that there can be a mass capturing of kids at a faculty, and he gave his son the precise device he would wish to perform this,” Barrow County District Legal professional Brad Smith mentioned throughout the sentencing listening to Thursday. “He’s the rationale 4 individuals are lifeless, seven are injured and numerous others traumatized. And he’s the rationale a 16-year-old boy was sentenced two days in the past to the remainder of his life in jail.”
A number of of the relations of these killed within the faculty capturing addressed the courtroom on Thursday, talking to the ache they proceed to endure.
Colin Grey declined to deal with the courtroom previous to his sentence.
Throughout the two-week trial, prosecutors introduced proof that Colin Grey had been warned that his son had an affinity for mass shooters and was conscious that the teenager saved a shrine on his bed room wall devoted to the shooter within the 2018 bloodbath at Marjory Stoneman Douglas Excessive College in Parkland, Florida.
As a substitute of getting his son psychological assist, Colin Grey gave the boy an AR-15-style weapon as a Christmas current that the teenager finally used to hold out the mass capturing at Apalachee Excessive College, prosecutors mentioned.
Colt Grey, the 16-year-old Apalachee Excessive College capturing suspect, is led in by deputies for his sentencing at Barrow County Superior Court docket, on July 27, 2026, in Winder, Ga.
Jason Getz/Atlanta Journal-Structure, Pool through AP
Colin Grey testified in his personal protection throughout the trial, breaking down whereas being questioned about whether or not he seen any “purple flags” that might have led him to imagine the boy was able to committing a mass capturing.
“I wrestle with it daily,” Colin Grey testified. “He is a very good child, you already know? He wasn’t excellent, however to do one thing, uh, that heinous, like I do not, I do not know if anyone would see that kind of evil.”
Throughout his testimony, Colin Grey confirmed that he gave his son the AR-15-style rifle as a Christmas current, telling jurors the present got here with guidelines.
“This can be a weapon that I need you to shoot once we go to the vary, and for those who preserve doing actually good at school, going to highschool and doing all of the issues it’s best to, you graduate and also you’re 18, this will likely be your gun,” Colin Grey mentioned he instructed his son.
Following the decision, Smith mentioned that proof confirmed that there have been “a number of warnings over a prolonged time frame.”
“You simply needed to do one factor — take that rifle away — and this could have been prevented,” Smith instructed reporters.
A number of different mother and father have been convicted within the U.S. in reference to a mass capturing carried out by their youngsters.
In 2024, Jennifer and James Crumbley have been convicted of costs stemming from a lethal mass capturing at a Michigan highschool dedicated by their then-15-year-old son, Ethan Crumbley. The mother and father have been discovered responsible of involuntary manslaughter in separate trials after prosecutors introduced proof of an unsecured gun at their dwelling and their indifference towards their son’s psychological well being. They have been every sentenced to 10 to fifteen years in jail.
Their son pleaded guilty in October 2022 to murdering 4 college students and injuring a number of others within the November 2021 capturing at Oxford Excessive College and was sentenced to life in jail with out parole.
In 2023, Robert Crimo Jr. pleaded guilty to seven counts of misdemeanor reckless conduct — one rely for every individual killed by his son, Robert Crimo III, throughout a mass capturing at a 2022 Fourth of July Parade within the Chicago suburb of Highland Park. As a part of a plea deal, Crimo Jr. was sentenced to 60 days in jail and two years of probation.
His son, who was 19 on the time of the capturing, pleaded guilty to a number of counts of homicide and tried homicide final yr and was sentenced to life in jail with out parole.
In an ongoing case, the daddy of a 15-year-old girl who shot and killed a scholar and instructor at a Wisconsin faculty in 2024 faces costs alleging he allowed his daughter entry to weapons used within the lethal capturing.
The daddy, Jeffrey Rupnow, was charged with two counts of deliberately giving a harmful weapon to a minor and one rely of contributing to the delinquency of a minor in reference to the capturing on the Plentiful Life Christian College in Madison. His case is ready to go to trial subsequent yr.
ABC Information’ Invoice Hutchinson contributed to this report.
