Chamian Cruz
| WABE
July 28th, 2026
Updated July 28, 2026,
4:21 PM EDT
The teenager who killed four people in a shooting at Apalachee High School in 2024 will spend the rest of his life in prison without a chance at parole, a judge ruled on Tuesday.
Colt Gray, now 16, chose not to make any statements at the hearing. He pleaded guilty last week to all 55 counts against him, including murder. The teen was not eligible for the death penalty due to his age.
Related story: ‘I want to make history’: Apalachee High School shooter’s motivations questioned in court
Family members of Christian Angulo, Mason Schermerhorn, Cristina Irimie and Richard Aspinwall sobbed in the courtroom as the teen shooter learned his fate.
Calls from jail between Colt Gray and his mother
Earlier in the day, at least one family member of the injured survivors walked out as an investigator with the Barrow County District Attorney’s Office testified about the giddy jail calls that he had with his mother, Marcee Gray, regarding mass shootings, including his own.
“Well, you should,” the teen’s mother said in one call after the two talked about him surpassing in popularity the gunman who killed a firefighter at a 2024 Trump rally within the true crime community, known as TCC.
In another call, the younger Gray could be heard telling his mother, “I’m in the big leagues, bro!”
The teen’s lawyer argued that his client was only 14 in those calls, that he was trying to get along with his mom, who had at one point before the shooting threatened to kill him, and that it was his mom who seemed to be encouraging his behavior.
But, prosecutors pushed back, saying that it was the teen who was directing his mom to leak photos of their FaceTime calls to his “friends” in the TCC, in particular one referred to as Mandy by authorities. Those photos, along with the teen’s baby photos he had released just before the shooting, were then used to create social media edits.
“Yes, go for it,” the teen said in yet another call, encouraging his mom to participate in a BBC documentary about him.
Gray wanted to mimic other mass shooters
The investigator with the district attorney’s office also said that the Apalachee shooter chose to use the same type of rounds used in the Sandy Hook shooting and had a similar knife as the Parkland shooter – “Easter eggs” for members of the TCC.
He also got ready in the bathroom like Ethan Crumbley, whose parents were the first to be convicted of involuntary manslaughter for ignoring red flags about their son’s mental state and providing him access to the firearm used at Oxford High School in Michigan.
The defense called on two experts and the teen’s grandmother, Debbie Polhamus, to testify on the third day of his sentencing on Tuesday about his potential for rehabilitation and the role his parents played in his development.
“I’m probably the most guilty of all,” Polhamus said, detailing how she unsuccessfully tried to get her grandson mental health treatment.
Prosecutors questioned how the grandmother could argue that her grandson should be given a second chance when he was finally getting the help she says he so desperately needed. Their case centered on the younger Gray wanting to gain notoriety and fame within the TCC.
His court appearances, prosecutors argued, were “just one of the steps of the plan.”
The teen’s father, Colin Gray, is the first parent in Georgia to be convicted of second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter for giving his son the assault-style rifle used to open fire at Apalachee as a Christmas present. His own sentencing is scheduled for Thursday.
This is a developing story. Please return for updates.
