Colin Gray, father of the accused school shooter, was found guilty by a Georgia jury yesterday, March 3, 2026. In this rare circumstance of holding a parent criminal responsible for the actions of their child, and in this case, a son who allegedly murdered two 14-year-old classmates, and two teachers with an AR-15 style rifle that was gifted to him.

Setting a Precedent

The Barrow County Jury found 55-year-old Colin Gray guilty on all charges, including second-degree murder and cruelty to children, in connection with the mass shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, on September 4, 2024. His son, Colt Gray, was charged with the shooting itself and is currently awaiting trial.

Besides Colin and Colt Gray’s unique situation, there has been one other precedent set for prosecuting parents of children who committed school shootings. The deadly 2021 shooting at Oxford High School in Detroit, Michigan, carried out by Ethan Crumbley, resulted in his parents, James and Jennifer Crumbley, being convicted of involuntary manslaughter.

According to Barrow County District Attorney Brad Smith, Colt Gray’s mother, Marcee, cited the Crumbley case when her estranged husband gifted her 14-year-old son a rifle for Christmas and gave him unlimited access to it. This occurred months before the horrific shooting, but nothing was done.

“I think you saw in this case that the mother actually reviewed what happened in Michigan … and she then, as a result of that, asked her husband to remove the weapons,” Smith said to reporters.

“It could have ended this tragedy. So Michigan was able to move the needle to the point that almost stopped this tragedy,” he said. “How many tragedies did it stop? We hope we move the needle a little further.”

Guilty Verdict

After closing statements, the jury deliberated for just under two hours before finding Colin Gray guilty on all 27 counts. As the jury delivered their verdict, Colin remained emotionless on the outside, his face showing no signs of a reaction. The jury went through all counts and confirmed their verdicts with the judge, and Colin was escorted out in handcuffs, wearing a blue sports coat and khaki pants. 

Superior Court Judge Nicholas Primm has not set a date for sentencing because “There are a lot of people that need to be notified and have a right to appear.” Colin faces up to 243 years in prison for his conviction and for the actions of his son.

Colt Gray has been accused of using a firearm gifted to him by his father that was not secured in their home, and he senselessly slaughtered only four people, because he was taken down before he could do more damage. At the time of the shooting, Colt was a 14-year-old child, and now remains in custody waiting for a trial date.

The Prosecution’s Case

Prosecutors built their entire case around Colt’s mental health at the time of the shooting and the months leading up to it. They argued that his father, Colin, blatantly ignored the warning signs that he posed a potential threat to the public, including his unhealthy fascination with school shooters, and his mix of emotions ranging from anger to sadness.

Colin testified in his defense, recounting incidents where his son felt bullied at school and showed signs of rage. He said he never considered his son to be a violent threat, even after witnessing violent tendencies. “I never thought that he would even have a thought process of bringing a gun to school or doing any kind of harm to anybody else. Well, on anybody at school,” Colin told jurors.

In the prosecution’s closing arguments, they claimed that the 2024 shooting at Apalachee High could have been prevented if Colin Gray had taken the signs seriously. “After seeing sign after sign of his son’s deteriorating mental state, his violence, his school shooter obsession, the defendant had sufficient warning that his son was a bomb just waiting to go off,” Barrow County Assistant District Attorney Patricia Brooks said. “And instead of disarming him, he gave him the detonator.”

Defense’s Closing Statement

One of Colin Gray’s attorneys, Jimmy Berry, delivered a simple closing statement before the inevitable. He acknowledged that the warning signs that Colin witnessed from his son were important, but that he should not be punished for someone else’s actions. “That’s real important because that really is the key to this case, is what did he know?,” he said. “Did he know that Colt would do this?”

Berry held up a photo of Colt to show the jurors and said, “This is the person who went into the high school and shot and killed four people he didn’t even know and injured scores of others.”

“This is the person who needs to be punished,” he said. “He made a conscious decision to do this, a secretive decision.”