A Georgia jury discovered Colin Grey responsible Tuesday on prices together with second-degree homicide and manslaughter, stemming from a 2024 mass capturing allegedly dedicated by his teenage son with a rifle he gifted him as a Christmas current.
The jury discovered the 55-year-old Grey responsible of 27 counts. Two different counts had been dropped. The jury deliberated fewer than two hours earlier than returning its verdicts.
Grey is the primary guardian in the US convicted of homicide because of the alleged acts of their baby after prosecutors in varied U.S. states in recent times have tried to carry mother and father criminally liable in connection to their kids’s lethal actions.
Colin Grey, the daddy of Apalachee Excessive College capturing suspect Colt Grey, takes the stand throughout his trial on Friday, Feb. 27, 2026 in Atlanta. (AP Photograph/Pool)
AP
Colin Grey was charged with a number of counts of second-degree homicide, involuntary manslaughter, reckless endangerment and cruelty to kids. He pleaded not responsible to the fees.
Grey’s son, Colt Grey, now 16, allegedly killed two students and two teachers and injured eight college students in a Sept. 4, 2024, mass capturing at Apalachee Excessive College in Winder, Georgia, about 50 miles northeast of Atlanta.
Colt Grey, the Apalachee Excessive College capturing suspect, walks into the courtroom of Barrow County Superior Courtroom Decide Nicholas Primm for a listening to in Winder, Ga., Dec. 9, 2025.
Jason Getz/AP
Colt Grey has been charged as an grownup and is awaiting a separate trial on a number of counts of felony homicide and aggravated assault. He has pleaded not responsible.
Through the two-week trial, Barrow County prosecutors offered proof that Colin Grey had been warned that his son had an affinity for mass shooters and was conscious that Colt saved a shrine in his bed room devoted to the shooter within the 2018 bloodbath at Marjory Stoneman Douglas Excessive College in Parkland, Florida.
District Legal professional Brad Smith, left, factors to a weapon that was displayed on the display in the course of 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
As a substitute of getting his son psychological assist, Colin Grey allegedly gave the boy an AR-15-style weapon as a Christmas current that he finally used to hold out the mass capturing at Apalachee Excessive College, prosecutors alleged.
On Friday, Colin Grey took the witness stand in his personal protection and broke down whereas being questioned about whether or not he seen any “purple flags” that may have led him to consider the boy was able to committing a mass capturing.
“I wrestle with it day by day,” Colin Grey testified. “He is a great child, you realize? He wasn’t excellent, however to do one thing, uh, that heinous, like I don’t, I don’t know if anyone would see that kind of evil.”
Throughout his testimony, Grey confirmed that he gave his son the AR-15-style rifle as a Christmas current, telling jurors the reward got here with guidelines.
“It is a weapon that I need you to shoot once we go to the vary, and in the event you hold doing actually good at school, going to high school and doing all of the issues it is best to, you graduate and also you’re 18, this will likely be your gun,” Colin Grey mentioned he advised his son.
The landmark responsible verdict comes after a number of mother and father throughout the nation have been charged and convicted in reference to mass shootings carried out by their kids.
In December 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 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.
Crimo’s son, who was 19 on the time of the capturing, pleaded guilty to a number of counts of homicide and tried homicide in April 2025 and was sentenced to life in jail with out the potential for parole.
In 2021, Jennifer and James Crumbley grew to become the primary mother and father convicted in the US of prices stemming from a mass college capturing dedicated by their baby. Ethan Crumbley, then 16, pleaded guilty in October 2022 to prices he murdered 4 college students and injured a number of others in a November 2021 capturing at Oxford Excessive College in Oxford Township, Michigan, and was sentenced to life in jail with out parole.
Jennifer and James Crumbley had been discovered responsible of involuntary manslaughter in separate trials after prosecutors offered proof of an unsecured gun at their house and their indifference towards their son’s psychological well being. They had been every sentenced to 10 to fifteen years in jail.
