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 prices 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 be taught 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 kids 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 newest 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 varsity capturing case, saying it is the primary of its sort 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 kids are committing,” Primm mentioned. “It is a divisive case.”
Primm mentioned the daddy was convicted as a result of “the warning lights had 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 following faculty shooter, nevertheless it turned increasingly apparent that one thing dangerous was going to occur,” Primm mentioned.
The decide informed Colin Grey that if he had used gun locks or eliminated the ammunition from his home, “you would not be right here at the moment.”
District Lawyer Brad Smith, left, factors to a weapon that was displayed on the display screen 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 lawyer Chris Hobbs known as the primary case of its sort 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 persons are gone, and nothing the courtroom can do at the moment can change that. However the query at the moment is narrower, and in some methods more durable — 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 day-after-day” 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 could be a mass capturing of youngsters at a college, and he gave his son the precise instrument he would want to perform this,” Barrow County District Lawyer Brad Smith mentioned throughout the sentencing listening to Thursday. “He’s the rationale 4 persons are useless, 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 members of the family of these killed within the faculty capturing addressed the courtroom on Thursday, talking to the ache they proceed to endure.
Colin Grey declined to handle the courtroom previous to his sentence.
Through 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 stored 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 an alternative 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 “pink flags” that may have led him to consider the boy was able to committing a mass capturing.
“I battle with it day-after-day,” Colin Grey testified. “He is a great child, you recognize? 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 sort 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 after we go to the vary, and in case you maintain doing actually good at school, going to highschool and doing all of the issues you need to, you graduate and also you’re 18, this will probably be your gun,” Colin Grey mentioned he informed 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 might have been prevented,” Smith informed 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 kids.
In 2024, Jennifer and James Crumbley had been convicted of prices stemming from a lethal mass capturing at a Michigan highschool dedicated by their then-15-year-old son, Ethan Crumbley. The mother and father had been discovered responsible of involuntary manslaughter in separate trials after prosecutors introduced proof of an unsecured gun at their residence and their indifference towards their son’s psychological well being. They had 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 particular person 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 12 months 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 pupil and instructor at a Wisconsin faculty in 2024 faces prices 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 Considerable Life Christian College in Madison. His case is about to go to trial subsequent 12 months.
ABC Information’ Invoice Hutchinson contributed to this report.
