WINDER, Ga. (AP) — A young person has pleaded responsible to all 55 counts in a lethal capturing almost two years in the past at Apalachee Excessive Faculty in Georgia.
Colt Grey, 16, entered the plea Friday with out having reached a cope with prosecutors.
He had beforehand pleaded not responsible to expenses within the Sept. 4, 2024, capturing that killed two college students and two academics, and left a number of others wounded, at the highschool about 45 miles (73 kilometers) northeast of Atlanta.
Barrow County Superior Courtroom Decide Nicholas Primm is now anticipated to listen to both sides’s abstract of the case, proof and sentencing advice earlier than deciding the sentence.
Grey’s trial had been scheduled to start out in mid-October in Columbia County, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) from the place the capturing occurred, after the decide agreed to a protection request for a change of venue.
A jury in March convicted his father, Colin Grey, on expenses together with second-degree homicide and involuntary manslaughter, and he’s scheduled to be sentenced subsequent week.
Prosecutors stated the elder Grey gave his son the assault-style rifle used to open hearth on the college.
Academics Richard “Ricky” Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53, and college students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, each 14, died within the capturing.
One other trainer and eight extra college students had been wounded, seven of them hit by gunfire.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows under.
A young person accused of killing 4 folks almost two years in the past at Apalachee Excessive Faculty in Georgia was in courtroom Friday for a plea and sentencing listening to.
Colt Grey, 16, beforehand pleaded not responsible to homicide and different expenses within the Sept. 4, 2024, capturing that killed two college students and two academics, and left a number of others wounded, at the highschool about 45 miles (73 kilometers) northeast of Atlanta.
Barrow County Superior Courtroom Decide Nicholas Primm has set a “Non-Negotiated Plea and Sentencing Listening to” to start Friday. Grey’s trial had been scheduled to start out in mid-October in Columbia County, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) from the place the capturing occurred, after the decide agreed to a protection request for a change of venue.
Grey was led into the courtroom along with his toes chained collectively and sat at a desk along with his legal professional. Members of the neighborhood, together with some family members of victims, had been available within the courtroom.
A jury in March convicted Grey’s father, Colin Grey, on expenses together with second-degree homicide and involuntary manslaughter, and he’s scheduled to be sentenced subsequent week. Prosecutors stated the elder Grey gave his son the assault-style rifle used to open hearth on the college.
Academics Richard “Ricky” Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53, and college students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, each 14, died within the capturing. One other trainer and eight extra college students had been wounded, seven of them hit by gunfire.
A non-negotiated plea signifies that the state and the protection haven’t reached an settlement on a sentence. In contrast to a negotiated plea deal, wherein a defendant usually pleads responsible in change for an agreed-upon sentence and presumably diminished expenses, sentencing is left completely to the decide.
The decide decides the sentence after listening to both sides’s abstract of the case, proof and sentencing advice.
Prosecutors have indicated in courtroom filings that they intend to name teenage victims and witnesses to testify and to point out surveillance video and crime scene photographs throughout Friday’s listening to.
They’ve additionally famous that they might introduce a slew of information, together with 911 calls and Colt Grey’s college, medical and social media information.
Grey’s protection legal professional wrote in a courtroom submitting that he plans to name a psychologist, a counselor on the juvenile detention middle the place he has been held and his grandmother to testify.
Grey, who was 14 on the time of the capturing, was charged as an grownup with 55 complete counts, together with homicide within the 4 deaths and 25 counts of aggravated assault.
Investigators testified that {the teenager} carried the rifle onto the college bus with the barrel wrapped in a poster board. They stated he left his second-period class and emerged from a toilet with the rifle, capturing folks in a classroom and hallway.
Investigators have stated Colt Grey rigorously plotted the capturing at the highschool of 1,900 college students.
A Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent testified that the teenager left a pocket book in his classroom with step-by-step directions and a diagram to organize for the assault, together with an estimate that he might kill as many as 26 folks and wound as many as 13 others.
Sheriff’s deputies interviewed Colt and Colin Grey in Could 2023 about a web based risk linked to the son. Colt Grey denied making the risk.
He skipped eighth grade, enrolled as a freshman at Apalachee after the educational yr had begun after which had a spotty attendance file.
Investigators discovered a shrine in Colt Grey’s bed room to Nikolas Cruz, the shooter within the 2018 bloodbath at Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas Excessive Faculty, prosecutors stated.
An investigator testified throughout Colin Grey’s trial that he had been conscious that his son’s psychological well being had deteriorated and sought assist from a counseling service weeks earlier than the capturing, citing anger, nervousness and volatility.
However the father by no means adopted by way of on getting assist for his son, the investigator stated.
His mom, Marcee Grey, who was separated from Colin Grey, advised investigators she had urged him weeks earlier than the capturing to safe his weapons and prohibit their son’s entry to them.
As an alternative, over time, Colin Grey purchased the boy ammunition, a gun sight and different capturing equipment, information present.
