Trial timeline set in Apalachee High School shooting case

追加: 2026-05-28

[00:00:00]a a look into a potential trial for Colt Gray. He is the accused Appalachee High School shooter, accused of taking four lives in 2024 when he opened fire at that high school. Right now, a judge in Barrow County is saying that he will either go to trial or plead guilty.

[00:00:18]11Alive's Grace King is following this for us. She's been following it since this story broke in 2024, following this potential trial very closely. Grace King joining us live now. Grace, what are we hearing today?

[00:00:33]>> Well, the bottom line is Judge Nicholas Prim says whatever happens will happen this year. It's been 2 years since the Appalachee High School shooting. Colt is on his fourth attorney, and the judge wants to make sure that they get to a resolution soon. So, the options before him, Colt has until the end of July to plead guilty to the charges before him.

[00:00:50]He would have sentencing that same week, or he can go to trial. Now, if he goes to trial, it would be in a completely different county. They're looking at Columbia County near Augusta as the best possible option, and that would happen late this fall, possibly October into November with sentencing shortly after.

[00:01:07]So, justice for these families right around the corner, either in July or later this fall, according to the judge here today.

[00:01:13]>> And Grace, could you tell us the feeling of the courtroom? What was it? Can you just paint a picture for us for those who were not inside?

[00:01:22]>> Well, all of the families have been to every legal hearing for both Colt Gray and his dad, Collin Gray. They've shown up in support of their loved ones who were unfortunately killed that day, September 4th, 2024. You have the family of, you know, Richard Aspinwall. You have the family of Christina Eramo. You have the family of Mason Schermerhorn, and of course of Christian Angulo. All of them have been at every hearing.

[00:01:43]They've, you know, this has just been a very long, a very taxing, a very emotional process for them. When we've heard from them, they've said, you know, we just we want our day in court, but we want this to end, and they're looking forward to a possible resolution. Of course, it can never bring their loved ones back, but they are glad to see that this case is progressing and will hopefully be over for good this year.

[00:02:03]>> Yeah, and Grace, we know that when this alleged shooting happened, Colt was 14 years old. He's now 16. Are we hearing that the age here could have anything to do with where this trial might go, or is that uh a non-issue?

[00:02:20]>> I mean, he's being tried as an adult here, so they don't plan to bring that as an issue or they don't plan to bring that as the main issue here. Of course, the age at the time of the shooting could make an impact at sentencing, but the bottom line is he is accused of murder. He is being tried as an adult, so that will proceed as that. The 14-year-old part, what that really played into is his dad calling Grace's trial. Now, he was held criminally responsible on multiple charges, including murder, for gifting Colt Gray the gun. His son was just 14. They said he was just a kid. He was showing signs of mental struggles, and the dad did nothing to intervene, to get him help, or to take the gun away. So, the age really made a difference in the dad's case. Here, he's being tried as an adult, so it may not make as much of a difference in this case.

[00:03:03]>> And I'm glad that you mentioned his dad's case, another case that you have been following along very closely. Will anything from his dad's case impact his case, or do we not know that yet?

[00:03:16]>> It's not supposed to. Of course, a lot of the evidence will be on will be the same. In Colin's case, they showed video of Colt Gray, you know, boarding [snorts] the school bus that morning with a rifle wrapped in poster board, walking through the halls, putting on gloves, shooting into the classrooms down J Hall. So, that video presumably would be the same video used in Colt Gray's case. There were also photos inside the house that showed Colt Gray had a shrine of what of sorts is what prosecutors called it to school shooters like Nicholas Cruz. That could come into evidence here, too. So, a lot of the evidence would stay would stay the same, but the impact from one case to another, they're not supposed to impact each other. Of course, that's always a concern here. Calling Gray's sentencing is scheduled for late July. Much of that is not allowed to be broadcast because the judge does not want it to impact any possible trial for Colt Gray later this summer. Now, if Calling Gray's sentencing and Colt Gray's plea were to happen together that same kind of week, the judge said one option could be combining victim impact statements. The defense didn't really like that or doing them back-to-back. So, they could kind of merge towards the end, but we are just going to have to wait and see.

[00:04:22]>> We will have to wait to see. And for those just joining, just reiterating here, the judge giving uh Colt Gray, the accused shooter in this Apalachee High School tragic shooting, an option to either go to trial or plead guilty.

[00:04:35]Grace, what is next here?

[00:04:40]>> Well, presumably uh Colt Gray will either plead guilty this summer or we will go to trial in October. We will just have to wait and see. Columbia County, the chief judge there says they're possibly and most likely willing to host Barrow County this fall, but they're doing some courthouse renovations, so the timeline is a bit up in the air. Usually, there's a couple hearings procedurally that are scheduled, you know, a month out from trial or 3 months out from trial, but that all depends on a final court date.

[00:05:04]So, Barrow County would have to work with Columbia County or whatever county they end up choosing um to hold this trial to figure out that trial date and then kind of set the hearings backwards from there. So, it's just waiting to see whether Colt takes a plea by that July deadline or if they go ahead and move forward with the trial in another county.

[00:05:20]>> And I know we only have you for a few more seconds here, but just explaining to us Gre- Grace the reason why this trial would take place outside of Barrow County. Um my understanding is because the the judge wants to make sure that there's a a fair jury if this trial does happen. It's similar to what we saw in his dad's case.

[00:05:40]>> Absolutely. So, his dad's case, they went to Hall County. It's about 45 minutes to an hour from here. And a lot of those jurors said, you know, I know people in Barrow County. I'm a Barrow County school teacher, or not, you know, my son went to Barrow County schools.

[00:05:53]I'm friends with the football coach. I know some of the victims. And almost everyone had seen it on TV or knew something about it. Of course, that's right here in the Atlanta media market, so the judge says, you know what, for this one, let's just go a little bit farther, not have any issues on appeal, and he said Columbia County was the one he had reached out to and heard back from. A lot of the other counties he was thinking of had kind of ghosted him. He said it was radio silence, so Columbia County was the one. It's in the Augusta media market. He felt there was less coverage there, less exposure to prospective jurors that could have that would not taint their opinion of this case before they were picked, of course.

[00:06:27]Many of these people in the metro Atlanta area were watching not only the tragedy and the aftermath, but also the dad's trial, so getting even farther away for this one is definitely going to make a difference.

[00:06:37]>> Yeah, and I mean, with the internet, social media, I mean, you're talking about a mass school shooting, not just people here in Georgia watching that, but it over the entire country. But, thank you for breaking down as to why, if this does go to trial, it would not be in Barrow County. 11 Alive's Grace King following this very closely for us.

[00:06:53]Grace, we'll check in with you later today. Thank you so much.