The sentencing phase of Colt Gray’s trial is scheduled to continue for a second day Monday.
Gray, 16, pleaded guilty to all 55 charges in connection to the Apalachee High School shooting Friday. Gray entered the courtroom with shackles around his ankles at 9:20 a.m. He stood next to his attorney, Charlton Allen, when he told the judge he has changed his mind about his innocence.
Judge Nicholas Primm asked Gray if the decision was based on his own free will.
“Yes, your Honor,” said Gray.
“I think he’s fully capable of making this decision,” his attorney told the judge.
Survivors in the courtroom could be heard breathing a sigh of relief and saying, “Thank God” when Gray announced his Guilty plea.
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He was a 14-year-old Freshman, at the school in Sept. 2024 when he carried out the mass shooting. A Barrow County Grand Jury indicted Gray, officially charging him with 55 crimes in Oct. 2024.
Four people died. Two of them were teachers: Ricky Aspinwall and Cristina Irimie.
Two were students: Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo.
Three other students were shot but survived. Shrapnel hit two other students. A teacher, David Phenix, was shot. He survived after another teacher, Valerie Lancaster, rendered aid.
At least 10 more students in a classroom where Gray opened fire survived.
The trial immediately moved to the sentencing phase in which the judge will decide the result.
The judge told Gray the minimum punishment he’s facing is a life sentence that could allow parole.
He said the maximum punishment is life in prison without parole.
Families of those killed told the judge they prefer the maximum sentence.
They spoke inside the courtroom immediately after Colt entered his guilty plea.
Breanna Schermerhonr, Mason’s mother, spoke first. She told the judge Gray knew the difference between right and wrong.
“I want it to be very clear that I do not forgive Mr. Gray,” said the mom. “The failures of the adults around him may explain parts of his story, but they do not excuse the decisions that he made. Those decisions were his and his alone, and because of those decisions, my Macy Mace is gone. My family, both biological and chosen, have been forced to endure horrors.”
Mason’s sister, Alanna Schermerhorn, took the stand next.
She described entering college while trying to grieve the loss of Mason.
“I had to provide my brother’s death certificate to my school for my absences to be excused,” Allana explained.
She described seeing her brother’s last moments on security footage playing in the courtroom.
She turned to speak directly to Gray, “You didn’t feel remorse after shooting into that classroom. You didn’t feel remorse after you shot those teachers, and you definitely didn’t feel remorse after you shot my brother in the head.”
She told Gray, “You took away someone who saw kindness every day,” she told him.
Another sister, Lilianah Ahmed, told the judge, “Being in the same room as him disgusts me.”
Christian Angulo died while trying to shut the classroom door to save other students. His big brother, Junior Angulo told the judge to deliver the maximum sentence allowed by law. He said, “The defendant showed no mercy when he stole their futures. Therefore, he should not receive the grace of a second chance.”
Coach Ricky Aspinwall’s wife Shana agreed. “I ask that Ricky’s killer is not given an opportunity for parole. The trauma it would continue to bring me and my daughters knowing that there is a chance, even a small chance, that he would get out of prison would be continued torture for my family.”
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Apalachee High School Principal Jessica Rehberg also spoke.
“A stranger among us took what did not belong to him,” Rehberg told the judge. “He’s a thief, and more than that, he is also a murderer.”
A total of 13 survivors shared victim impact statements.
Immediately after that, The Barrow County Sheriff’s Office investigator who questioned Gray the day of the shooting took the stand to testify.
As prosecutors argue for the harshest sentence, they are pointing evidence they believe shows Gray planned the attack.
Investigator Jason Smith pointed out pages in Gray’s notebooks that describe a plan to shoot up a classroom, step-by-step.
He read a portion of it to the judge. “It says, ‘Shoot the teacher first the students next.,” said Smith.
Then, prosecutors played the judge an audio recording of what Gray told Smith minutes after the shooting.
Gray is sobbing as he admits to shooting people in a classroom and in the hallway.
“Is that something you’ve been thinking about doing for a while?” Smith asked the student.
“Yes. It’s been years,” Gray responded.
Family of those killed covered their mouths and put their heads in their hands as they listened to the audio of the student.
“Oh my God this is so traumatic for all the people. I’m so sorry,” Gray said the recording.
“You just walked aimlessly shooting?” asked Smith.
“Pretty much,” Gray tells him.
Later that night, Smith questions Gray again inside an interrogation room.
Gray is not crying anymore. He said the voices he hears in his head made him do it.
“How many people do you think you killed?” asked Smith.
“I wouldn’t know,” said Gray. “All I saw was the bag in the hallway.”
He was talking about a covering on top of someone he killed.
“It was like a psychosis state,” said Gray. “Blackout.”
He said he was going to get help from a counselor at school but changed his mind.
Day one ended with the interrogation video.
Prosecutors plan to call two more witnesses on Monday. Then, the defense plans to call three more: Gray’s grandmother Deborah Polhamus, a psychologist and a jail counselor.
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