A Georgia courtroom heard testimony that shed new mild on a possible motive for Colt Gray, the teenager who fatally shot 4 individuals at Apalachee High School in 2024, together with proof of his obsession with earlier mass shootings and need for infamy.
Prosecutors and protection attorneys spent the second day of the sentencing hearing debating whether or not Colt, 16, can ever be rehabilitated, whereas the courtroom weighs whether or not he ought to spend the remainder of his life in jail, both with or with out parole.
The hearing comes about two years after the attack at the high school, the deadliest school taking pictures in Georgia historical past. Just 14 on the time, Colt took an AR-15-style rifle to school and fatally shot academics Richard Aspinwall and Cristina Irimie and college students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo. Nine others have been additionally injured.
On Friday, he pleaded guilty to 55 charges, together with four counts of murder. In courtroom, victims’ families and shooting survivors spoke about their bodily and emotional scars.
The hearing is expected to conclude Tuesday, when the protection has indicated in courtroom filings that it could name its two ultimate witnesses: Colt’s grandmother and one other psychological well being knowledgeable. Colt could have a chance to deal with the courtroom earlier than Judge Nicholas Primm decides whether or not to sentence the 16-year-old to life with or with out parole.
Colt Gray, 16, pleads responsible in 2024 school taking pictures
In messages earlier than the assault, learn aloud earlier than the courtroom on Monday, Colt wrote about his eager for fame and obsession with Nikolas Cruz, the Parkland school shooter who killed 17 college students and academics in 2018.
“(I) wanna make history to put it short,” Colt wrote on the messaging platform Discord greater than a 12 months earlier than the taking pictures. “I want people to remember the pain I caused and research me for hours.”
“My love for Nik has formed into something in which I can find no other resort that can prove my love and affection towards him,” he wrote in one other message days earlier than the taking pictures.
Stand with Parkland, an advocacy group based by households of the mass taking pictures at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018, wrote in a press release to NCS that it was “especially painful to learn that (Colt) idolized the murderer who attacked our children and spouses and used that tragedy as inspiration,” stated the group’s president, Tony Montalto, whose daughter was killed within the Parkland taking pictures.
Dr. Kevin Richards, a forensic psychologist, testified for the protection Monday about Colt’s psychological well being points. He stated the teenager’s paranoia, melancholy and nervousness have been exacerbated by neglect and abuse at residence and a web based fixation with mass shooters.
“He was a lonely, dysfunctional kid who was anxious, paranoid, depressed and immersed in this highly dysfunctional world with these people who were obsessed with folks who had done school shootings,” Richards stated.
Ashley Gilleland, an investigator with the Barrow County District Attorney’s Office, testified Monday about writings in Colt’s journal and statements to police that have been impressed by different mass shootings, together with the 2012 Aurora, Colorado, movie theater massacre; the Sandy Hook Elementary School taking pictures; and the nation’s deadliest excessive school mass taking pictures in Parkland.
On Friday, the courtroom heard recordings of Colt’s interview with investigators lower than an hour after the taking pictures.
Sobbing and gasping, he apologized and supplied paranoid, hallucinatory explanations for his actions, saying he believed academics have been plotting towards him. He additionally advised investigators he believed he ought to be in a psychological well being facility.
Colt Gray advised investigators he believed he ought to be in a psychological well being unit
Richards, who stated he reviewed case information and interviewed Colt for about 15 hours complete for his evaluation, testified Monday that Colt may enhance with correct interventions and drugs.
But on cross-examination, Richards stated Colt had exaggerated his psychological well being signs and made issues up to attempt to get a extra severe analysis. Colt didn’t have any indicators of madness, schizophrenia or bipolar dysfunction, Richards stated.
“My evaluation didn’t reveal any actual mania or any diagnosis of schizophrenia,” he stated. “They can talk about it until the cows come home, but there was no evidence for it.”
Testimony from Colt’s grandmother, who might seem Tuesday, may present further perception into the boy’s upbringing and household life earlier than the decide determines his sentence.
Colt’s father, Colin Gray, was discovered guilty of murder and manslaughter charges in March for buying his son the firearm and holding it unsecured regardless of warnings that Colt was a hazard to others.
The father’s trial revealed the extent of Colt’s tumultuous childhood. His mom struggled with drug and alcohol dependancy, and the household moved repeatedly. Family members spoke about Colt’s spiraling psychological well being, and school information present he was repeatedly absent from class, together with lacking his complete eighth-grade 12 months.
Colin Gray faces many years in jail, and his sentencing will start Thursday.
The subsequent day, simply 5 miles south of the Barrow County Courthouse, college students will return to Apalachee High School for the primary day of the new school 12 months.
Mason Schermerhorn’s mom says she does not forgive Colt Gray, however she is aware of he was failed by the adults in his life.
Friday’s sentencing hearing belonged to the victims. One after one other, members of the family and survivors stood earlier than the courtroom, describing who they were earlier than September 4, 2024, and who they’ve turn out to be since.
“I started to hate myself because I couldn’t truly live anymore, because I let you take every piece of joy I had away from me,” stated Nautica Walton, who was in ninth grade when she was shot within the leg.
“I hate everything about you,” she told Colt. “I hate the scars you left on my body. I hate that you took innocent lives in front of innocent people. Most of all, I hate that I let you live in my mind.”
Others acknowledged Colt’s tough childhood circumstances, as revealed during his father’s trial, whereas making clear it may by no means justify his actions.
“Two things can be true at the same time,” stated Sarah Beaver, the mom of taking pictures survivor Jaxson Beaver. “He was a child who was failed. He was also the person who failed countless innocent children and their families.”
“The defendant’s family will still get to see their son, talk to him and know he is breathing,” said Ismael Angulo Jr., the oldest sibling of sufferer Christian Angulo. “My mother (and) my father don’t get that privilege. The only way to visit Christian now is by standing over his grave.”
He added: “There is no fairness in that reality.”
NCS’S Eric Levenson, Isabel Rosales, Sarah Hutter, Andy Rose, Devon M. Sayers, Alaa Elassar and Rebekah Riess contributed to this report.