A Georgia judge sentenced Colin Gray to 15 years in prison Thursday for providing the assault rifle his 14-year-old son used to kill four people at Apalachee High School, marking the third time an American parent has been convicted over a child's mass shooting.
Gray was convicted in March of second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter after prosecutors showed he gifted his son Colt a SIG Sauer SIGM400 rifle as a Christmas present in 2023, despite knowing the teenager had erected a shrine to a Florida school shooter and was obsessed with mass killers. Judge Nicholas Primm, who said Gray had failed as a parent, handed down the sentence after prosecutors sought 80 years and the defense argued for 10.
His son, Colt Gray, has been sentenced to life in prison without parole as an adult for the September 2024 attack in Winder, Georgia, which killed two students and two teachers and wounded nine others. The case follows the precedent set by the Michigan parents convicted over their son's 2021 school shooting.