Colin Gray found guilty on all 27 charges in Apalachee school shooting trial
A jury found colin gray guilty on all 27 charges, including counts of murder, for his role in the shooting at Apalachee High School that killed four people and injured nine others. The verdict follows a multi-day trial that presented physical evidence, witness testimony and family accounts of warnings before the attack.
Short deliberation ended with unanimous verdict
Jurors received their instructions Tuesday morning, left the courtroom at 9: 02 a. m. ET to begin deliberations and returned at 10: 52 a. m. ET, after which the panel announced a guilty verdict on every count. Two additional child-cruelty charges had been dropped earlier in the week after two students who were in the classroom did not testify. The judge set a future date for sentencing; no trial date has been set yet for the defendant's son.
Evidence shown in court tied a rifle purchase to November 2023
The trial opened with attorneys giving opening statements on Feb. 16, and jurors heard the first testimony on Feb. 17. Investigators took the stand on Feb. 18 to show the AR-style rifle used in the mass shooting, and the state presented receipts it says show the father bought the rifle in Nov. 2023. Prosecutors argued that purchase came about seven months after Jackson County Sheriff’s deputies visited the family home to investigate accusations that the child had threatened to shoot up a school; the defense argued the rifle was bought to steer the son toward hunting, target shooting and outdoor activity.
Family testimony described warnings, planned treatment and a split over what to do
Marcee Gray, the mother of the suspected shooter, testified that she told the father she believed their son needed inpatient therapy for anxiety, depression, cutting and mania, and that the family had planned to drop him off at a treatment facility in Athens the Saturday before the shooting. She said the father ignored her calls and instead took the son to a guitar shop in Athens. On Day 5 of the trial she testified the son had sent money to Nicholas Cruz in prison and had written him an e-mail; she said she had not told the father about those messages.
On a separate day of testimony, the defendant's daughter — then in middle school — told jurors she believed her brother was capable of a school shooting and that she believed her father did, too. The defense highlighted differences between her courtroom testimony and statements she gave to investigators after the attack.
Prosecutors also showed a Barrow County deputy's body-camera video from the day they came to the home after the shooting; the video captured the father saying, "I knew it, " when he came out of the house. Investigators presented what they described as a shrine to a school shooter in the son's room, including a collage with pictures of Nicholas Cruz that they say appeared months before the attack. The father told deputies during an interrogation that he did not recognize the collage; on the witness stand he said his son had told him who was pictured.
The Barrow County District Attorney's Office accused the defendant of being reckless by not restricting his son's access to guns despite knowing his son could cause harm. Defense attorneys said the father's actions were aimed at redirecting the son's interests and that he did not foresee the fatal outcome.
colin gray will be sentenced at a later date, the court said. No date has been announced for the suspected shooter's trial.
