1 of 2 | Student Jose Ortiz, right, accepts an embrace from chaplain Ronald Clark, left at a makeshift memorial one day after a deadly school shooting in 2024 at Apalachee High School in Winder, Ga. Colt Gray, 16, was sentenced to life in prison without parole Tuesday for the shootings. Photo by Erik S. Lesser/EPA-EFE
July 28 (UPI) — A 16-year-old who used an assault-style rifle to kill two other students and two teachers at his Georgia high school will spend the rest of his life in prison.
On Tuesday, a judge sentenced Colt Gray to life without parole for the Sept. 4, 2024, shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia. Another teacher and eight other students were injured in the shooting.
Gray pleaded guilty to all 55 counts, including those of murder, on Friday.
“You do not seem to be tormented by what you did, you seemto relish following in the footsteps of the murderers you idolize,” Judge Nicholas Primm of Barrow County Superior Court told Gray on Tuesday. “You aren’t rackedwith guilt. You’re proud of yourself.”
“There’s no joy here,” Primm said. “It’s only a measure of closure. The slain will not return to life. The injured will not forget their wounds. And a 16-year-old, 16-year-old boy, will live and die in prison.”
Gray was 14 at the time of the shooting and was charged as an adult. The two students who died — Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo — were also 14. Gray also killed teachers Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53.
Prosecutor said in the sentencing hearing that Gray became obsessed with school shooters through an online community and that his jail phone calls with his mother showed he was “thrilled” to be compared to them.
Gray’s father, Colin Gray, was convicted in March on charges of second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter for giving his son the weapon he used to commit the shootings.
Family members of those killed had urged the judge to give Gray the maximum sentence for his crimes.
“It is a life sentence of grief and trauma for those left behind,” said Aspinwall’s wife, Shayna. Their daughters were 2 and 5 when Gray killed their father.