Change of venue granted in Georgia school shooting that left two teachers, two students dead

Added: 2026-06-03

[00:00:11]All right, good morning again. This is State of Georgia versus Cole Gray 24 CR 594. We're here for a status hearing.

[00:00:27]Mr. Allen, previous counsel [clears throat] filed a motion to change venue. I wasn't sure what your position is on that.

[00:00:35]>> All right, Judge, in the event we have a jury trial, I would be adopting that motion. I do think that we would need to consider an alternate location for any trial.

[00:00:43]>> What's the state's position?

[00:00:44]>> The state does not object to a change of venue.

[00:00:47]>> Um All right, I'll enter an order changing venue.

[00:00:51]Um I can tell you all in and in in in anticipation, I've reached out to a couple of other locations trying to find places outside of the Atlanta metro media.

[00:01:04]Um I got a fair amount of radio silence from some of those jurisdictions.

[00:01:10]Um I I can tell you the leading candidate right now is Columbia County.

[00:01:14]Um which is part of the Augusta um area. Their their media is pulled from Augusta as opposed to Atlanta.

[00:01:23]Um They are the the chief judge there said they're more than likely willing to accommodate and to accept um us having a trial in their their courthouse. We would probably be starting mid-October and then running through potentially into that first week in November.

[00:01:43]I don't know that I'm going to review voir dire.

[00:01:45]>> Okay.

[00:01:46]>> I did that last time and I >> [laughter] >> I don't think I'm going to do it again.

[00:01:50]>> We're totally fine.

[00:01:50]>> As far as the scheduling order, I am going to put a plea deadline in. I actually do that in essentially all my cases.

[00:01:59]Um it would be that last week of July.

[00:02:01]That's judges conference, so courtrooms are available. Um we don't have any conflicts. I know that um now Colin [snorts] Gray is scheduled for that week as well, and I realize that there's got to be some sort of separation in in the event Mr. Uh Cole Gray changed his mind and wanted to enter a plea.

[00:02:21]>> You're right. So, I do think it would be a due process argument problem if the court refused to allow him to enter a plea. Following that, if he changes his mind, we're set for trial, and then he wants to enter a plea.

[00:02:33]>> I think the issue is going to be a defendant does not have a constitutional right to enter a guilty plea. They have a constitutional right to a jury trial.

[00:02:44]You have any suggestions, Mr. Allen?

[00:02:49]>> Um >> I want to avoid a situation where we burden another jurisdiction to make all these arrangements to clear out their courtroom, su- summon their jurors early, and then you know, the eve of a guilty plea's entered.

[00:03:12]>> I'm not going to bring it up.