“You were convicted because the warning lights were flashing brighter and brighter and you didn’t get him help and you didn’t remove his access to the guns.”
The father of Colt Gray, the teen who has pleaded guilty to killing four in a 2024 shooting at a Georgia high school, has been sentenced to 15 years in prison after a jury found he had criminal responsibility for the mass shooting.
Colin Gray had been convicted of charges that included involuntary manslaughter in March. Prosecutors had argued that the father bore significant blame for the shooting because he had given his then-14-year-old son the rifle that was later used in the attack, and said he failed to see signs of his son’s deteriorating mental health.
Handing down the sentence, Judge Nicholas Primm of State Superior Court in Barrow County said, “You were convicted because the warning lights were flashing brighter and brighter and you didn’t get him help and you didn’t remove his access to the guns," per the New York Times. The judge said, “It became more and more obvious that something bad was going to happen,” adding that Gray was “tethered” to the crimes of his som by his negligence. The judge said that if the father had acted differently, “you wouldn’t be here today.”
On Tuesday, Colt Gray, now 16, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, with Judge Primm saying, “You do not seem to be tormented by what you did. You seem to relish following in the footsteps of the murderers you idolize, you aren't wracked with guilt. You're proud of yourself.”
Colin Gray attempted to convince jurors during the trial that the intentions of his son were only clear now because of hindsight, and portrayed himself during testimony as being ill-equipped to handle his son’s behavioral problems. He said that giving his son the gun for Christmas was a misguided way to try to connect with his son and pull him away from video games and the internet.
Giving an impact statement on Thursday, Breanna Schermerhorn, the mother of Mason Schermerhorn, a 14-year-old killed in the shooting, said, “He wasn’t left guessing. He knew his son was in crisis. Instead of acting, he chose to look away. Instead of intervening, he chose inaction. Instead of protecting his son from himself and protecting the community from the danger he posed, he armed him.”
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