BARROW COUNTY, Ga. — Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith felt a sense of relief when he heard the guilty plea from Apalachee High School shooter Colt Gray.
“It was emotional. It was a bit of a weight lifted off of us,” Sheriff Smith said.
On Tuesday, Judge Nicholas Primm sentenced Colt Gray to life in prison without parole for the shooting.
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Sheriff Smith remembers that day too well. He remembers walking the halls in the aftermath of the deadliest school shooting in Georgia history, having to tell the families about lost loved ones.
“It’s going to be a void. There is an empty place at the table,” Smith said.
In the nearly two years that followed, the community has tried to move on as the legal process played out. Last week, Colt Gray pled guilty in a non-negotiated plea, leaving his punishment in the hands of the judge.
Over the course of the multi-day sentencing hearing, both sides presented evidence. The prosecution showed how Colt Gray researched and idolized past school shooters. They played jailhouse phone calls between Gray and his mother where they seemed to revel in fan art.
“You aren’t wracked with guilt. You’re proud of yourself,” Judge Primm told Gray Tuesday. “Less than a month after the tragedy, you weren’t concerned with the horror you wrought, but rather with finding out which mass murderers they were comparing you to.”
Sheriff Smith agreed with that assessment.
“He has no remorse for what he’s done. It was cold and calculated,” Smith said.
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That preplanned nature had Judge Nicholas Primm decide Colt Gray had “permanent incorrigibility,” leading to the maximum sentence for a juvenile in Georgia.
“You thought you had fame, but that lock and door behind you, that bolt lock, that’s going to be the accountability, and we hope that you realize every time you put your head down that you’re never going to leave this place again,” Smith said.
Colt Gray’s sentencing is just part of the search for justice.
Colin Gray, already convicted of more than 20 charges related to providing a firearm to his son, will be sentenced Thursday.
“He enabled this young man. I mean, again, he was being a friend and not a parent,” Smith said.
Smith said he hopes the two sentences will bring justice and help the community move forward.
He added that while the pain remains, the community is determined to remember the victims and support one another as the healing process continues.
“How we continue that healing is we remember them, and we remember that we’re Chee strong, we’re Barrow County strong,” Smith said.
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