WINDER, Ga. (AP) — The father of a 14-year-old boy accused of gunning down students and teachers at a north Georgia high school will not be tried by jurors from the county where it happened.
Prosecutors and lawyers for the father, Colin Gray, agreed on that much during a Thursday court hearing. It was held to consider a change of venue in the rare criminal case against a parent of a child accused of a school shooting.
Gray has pleaded not guilty to 29 counts, including two counts of second-degree murder and two counts of involuntary manslaughter, in connection with the Sept. 4 killings at Apalachee High School in Winder.
Gray, 54, and his son, Colt Gray, were indicted in the shooting in which two students and two teachers were killed and several other people were injured. Both have pleaded not guilty.
Colin Gray gave his son the assault-style weapon as a Christmas gift and was aware that the child’s mental health had deteriorated in the weeks before the shooting, investigators testified at an earlier hearing. He also was aware that his son was obsessed with school shooters and even had a shrine above his home computer for the gunman in the 2018 Parkland, Florida, school massacre, prosecutors said.
During Thursday’s hearing, Colin Gray’s lawyer sought a change of venue from Barrow County out of concern that the publicity from the case might have tainted the opinions of local potential jurors. Prosecutors agreed that a jury of locals wouldn’t be appropriate because of the impact of the shooting on the county northeast of Atlanta.
Now the question becomes whether jurors from another north Georgia county will be chosen to hear the case — as prosecutors suggested — or whether it will be tried hundreds of miles (kilometers) away, perhaps in south Georgia.
Defense lawyer Jimmy Berry mentioned Thomas County, in south Georgia, as one possible place, saying residents there get much of their news from the Tallahassee, Florida, market. He suggested people there have been exposed to less news coverage about the shooting than local residents, though prosecutors said news of the shootings spread to all parts of Georgia and beyond.
Prosecutors raised the idea of choosing jurors from Walton County, which is near Barrow County. But Judge Nick Primm expressed concerns that jurors selected from there could know people involved in the case since that county is so close to Apalachee High.
Primm didn’t rule on the issue, saying he must consider whether to bring in jurors selected from somewhere else or move the entire trial to another county.
The shooting killed teachers Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53, and students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14. Another teacher and eight other students were wounded.
Colin Gray is the first adult known to be charged in a school shooting in Georgia. His indictment is the latest example of prosecutors holding parents responsible for their children’s actions in school shootings. Michigan parents Jennifer and James Crumbley, the first to be convicted in a U.S. mass school shooting, were sentenced to at least 10 years in prison for not securing a firearm at home and acting indifferently to signs of their son’s deteriorating mental health before he killed four students in 2021.
