Apalachee High School shooter Colt Gray sentenced to life without parole

BREAKING NEWSJul. 28, 2026, 7:56 PM UTCGuns in AmericaGuns in AmericaApalachee High School shooter Colt Gray sentenced to life without paroleGray, 16, pleaded guilty Friday to the 2024 killing of teachers Richard “Ricky” Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53, and students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14.Listen to this article with a free profile00:0000:00Colt Gray sits in Barrow County Courthouse Winder, GA in Dec. 2025.Mike Stewart / Getty Images fileShareAdd NBC News to GoogleBy Dan Gallo and Corky SiemaszkoThe teenager who used the assault-style rifle he got for Christmas to kill two students and two teachers at his Georgia high school will spend the rest of his life in prison.Colt Gray, 16, was sentenced Tuesday to life without parole for the deadly Sept. 4, 2024, shooting at Apalachee High School that also left another teacher and eight more students wounded, seven of them hit by gunfire.Christian Angulo; Mason Schermerhorn; Cristina Irimie; Richard Aspinwall.GoFundMe; Instagram; Apalachee High SchoolBarrow County Superior Court Judge Nicholas Primm handed down the sentence days after Gray pleaded guilty to all 55 counts against him, including murder.Gray, who was 14 at the time of the shooting, was charged as an adult. His trial had been scheduled to start in mid-October.But Gray entered the plea without having reached a deal with prosecutors. And he declined to address the court at his sentencing hearing Tuesday.That left it to the judge to decide whether Gray should be eligible for parole after hearing victim statements and each side’s summary of a case that has loomed large over the Atlanta suburb of Winder.Teachers Richard “Ricky” Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53, and students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14, died in the shooting.Their survivors urged the judge to impose the maximum sentence in victim impact statements delivered in court Friday.“It is a life sentence of grief and trauma for those left behind,” Aspin...