The father of teenage school shooter Colt Gray has demanded a new trial less than a week after being sentenced to 15 years behind bars.
Colin Gray, 55, was convicted back in March over his role in the deaths of four people who were shot and killed by his son at Apalachee High School in Georgia.
The dad had gifted his son the semiautomatic rifle and ammunition that was used in the massacre.
His lawyers, however, are now arguing the verdict was ‘decidedly and strongly against the weight of the evidence’, according to Atlanta First News.
In a two-page motion filed in Barrow County Superior Court on Wednesday, Gray’s legal team claim that there was insufficient evidence to convict him of second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter. They also argue the verdict was ‘contrary to law and the principles of justice and equity’.
Colin was found guilty of second-degree murder over the deaths of pupils Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14. He was convicted of involuntary manslaughter over the deaths of teachers Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53.
All four were killed when Colt, then just 14 years of age, opened fire at Apalachee High School on September 4, 2024.
Eight pupils and a teacher were also wounded in the mass shooting attack. Colt, now 16, has since been sentenced to life in prison without parole.
His father was sentenced on July 30 and is serving his time at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison, a maximum-security facility near Atlanta which also houses the state’s death row and execution chamber.
The prosecution’s case focused heavily on what Gray knew about his son’s deteriorating mental health before gifting him the weapon and ammunition as a Christmas present.
Prosecutors argued there were more than enough warning signs on show that should have prompted Colin to keep guns away from the teenager.
Jurors heard that Colt had become involved in an online true crime community where users discussed their fascination with mass shooters.
Investigators also learned his mother, Gray’s ex-wife, had asked for the weapons in the family home to be secured.
Colin’s defence presented a very different picture of what his father could reasonably have known about it all.
His attorneys argued Colt had ‘actively hid the depth of his involvement’ in online communities focused on mass shootings and appeared to be a normal teenager who enjoyed video games and trips into the woods with his dad.
Their argument was based on the idea that Colin had no idea what Colt planned to do.
Defence attorney Brian Hobbs also claimed Colt accelerated his plans for the shooting because his father was attempting to get him mental health treatment.
Prosecutors said that didn’t excuse Colin from acting on the warning signs he had already seen.
Barrow County District Attorney Brad Smith said he ‘was convicted for what he did know’, arguing the father had ignored a ‘substantial and unjustifiable risk’.
Investigator Jason Smith said: ‘This was the risk that he was ignoring: that there would be a mass shooting of children at a school, and he gave his son the exact tool he would need to accomplish this.
‘He is the reason four people are dead, seven were injured and countless others were traumatised, and he is the reason a 16-year-old boy was sentenced two days ago to the rest of his life in prison.’
Judge Nicholas Primm acknowledged how unusual the case was when sentencing Colin, noting he had no previous criminal history and hadn’t intended for the killings to happen.
But he said the father had failed to act on a foreseeable danger, including not securing the firearms in his home when his ex-wife asked him to.
‘You failed as a parent,’ Primm told him.
The case has drawn comparisons with James and Jennifer Crumbley, whose son Ethan killed four pupils at Oxford High School in Michigan in 2021.
Both parents were convicted of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to between 10 and 15 years behind bars, while Ethan was given life without parole.
Colin’s bid for a new trial could turn on how Georgia’s second-degree murder law applies to his conduct. The offence covers causing the death of a child while committing cruelty to children and his lawyers are challenging whether the circumstances of this case meet that threshold.
An attorney not involved in the case told Fox 5 Atlanta: ‘This statute says that in order to be guilty, the person must physically do cruelty to a child when the child dies. Colin Gray didn’t do anything to anyone at that school.’
Because Gray was convicted of murder, any eventual appeal of his conviction would fall within the jurisdiction of the Georgia Supreme Court.