atlanta — Jury selection is scheduled to begin Monday in the trial of a man whose teenage son is accused of killing two students and teachers at a Georgia high school in September 2024.
Collin Gray faces 29 charges, including two counts of second-degree murder, two counts of manslaughter and several counts of second-degree cruelty to children in connection with the shooting at Appalachian High School in Winder. He is one of a small number of parents across the country charged with crimes after their children were accused of violence.
The indictment says Gray committed child cruelty by giving his son, Colt, access to a handgun and ammunition “after receiving adequate warning that Colt Gray would harm and endanger the physical safety of another person.” Second-degree murder, an unusual charge under Georgia law, is defined as causing the death of a child by committing the crime of child cruelty.
Killed in the shooting were teachers Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Christina Eremi, 53, and two 14-year-old students, Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo. Another teacher and eight other students were injured.
fire
Investigators said Colt Gray, who was 14 at the time, carefully planned the shooting on September 4, 2024, at the 1,900-student school northeast of Atlanta.
He wrote step-by-step plans for the assault in a notebook, including diagrams and possible body counts, a Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent testified at a hearing a month after the shooting.
Investigators said he had a semi-automatic rifle in his book bag, the barrel sticking out and wrapped in poster board, and boarded the school bus. Investigators said he left his second semester, came out of the bathroom carrying the gun, and then shot people in the classroom and hallways.
Accusations against the father
Colin Gray had given his son the gun as a Christmas gift before the shooting, and then, at his son’s request, bought a larger magazine so the gun could hold more rounds, the detective testified during a pretrial hearing.
Prosecutors said Collin Gray knew his son was obsessed with school shooters, even having a shrine in his bedroom to Nikolas Cruz, the shooter in the 2018 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. A GBI agent testified that the teen’s parents discussed their son’s fascination with school shooters but decided it was a joke rather than a serious problem.
Investigators testified that Collin Gray was also aware of his son’s deteriorating mental health. He sought help from a counseling service weeks before the shooting. He wrote of his son: “We have had a very difficult past two years and he needs help. His anger and anxiety are volatile. I don’t know what to do.”
Trial
The trial will be held in Winder, Barrow County, where Appalachian High School is located. But jury selection will take place in Gainesville, in Hall County, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) away.
Colin Gray’s attorney sought a change of venue, arguing that publicity may have skewed the opinion of potential jurors in Barrow County. Prosecutors agreed, citing the impact the shooting had on the community.
The defense was not satisfied with the Hall County judge’s jury selection, acknowledging the relief for jurors but saying it was too close, remaining “within the geographic center of this tragedy.”
The judge in the case set Gray’s bail at $500,000, but he has remained in custody since his arrest the day after the shooting.
It is not known how long jury selection will take after it begins Monday or how long the trial will last once testimony begins. The judge suspended three weeks for jury selection and trial.
Other cases against parents
There have been a number of cases across the country where prosecutors have chosen to charge parents when they believe there is evidence of a parent contributing to violence attributed to a child.
Jennifer and James Crombley were the first parents in the United States to be held criminally liable for a mass school shooting by a child. They were convicted months before the Appalachian High School shooting and are serving a 10-year prison sentence for manslaughter.
Their son, Ethan Crumbley, killed four students and injured others at Oxford High School in Michigan in 2021. Prosecutors criticized the Crumbleys for not securing a firearm in the home and acting indifferently to signs of their son’s deteriorating mental health. They said Ethan’s actions were predictable and that the parents failed to prevent the violence.
Jeffrey Rubino is charged with knowingly giving a dangerous weapon to a person under 18 causing death. His daughter, Natalie Rubenau, 15, a student and teacher at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wisconsin, killed herself in December 2024.
Robert Cremo Jr. pleaded guilty to misdemeanors and was sentenced for upholding his son’s gun permit in Illinois in 2019 despite knowing that Robert Cremo III had expressed suicidal thoughts. Crimo III killed seven people in 2022 at a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, a northern suburb of Chicago.
The case against Colt Gray
Colt Gray was charged with a total of 55 counts, including first-degree murder resulting in the deaths of four people and 25 counts of aggravated assault. He pleaded not guilty, but the teenager’s lawyer said during a hearing in May that his client would likely be prepared to plead guilty after a psychologist’s report was prepared.
New lawyers have since begun representing him. At a brief hearing in December, the judge said a hearing on the case would be held in mid-March.
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