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Live updates: Colt Gray, Georgia school shooting suspect, pleads guilty, and victims are testifying
Colt Gray officially pleaded guilty in court Friday to all 55 charges against him, including four counts of murder, for the 2024 mass shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia. 'You understand that you will be pleading guilty to the entire indictment today, is that right?' the judge asked. 'Yes, your honor,' Colt responded. The judge said he will accept the plea. Gray, 14 at the time of the shooting, killed students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo and teachers Richard Aspinwall and Cristina Irimie. He wounded nine others in the attack. He had previously pleaded not guilty to the charges but indicated in recent weeks his plan to change his plea. The plea was non-negotiated, meaning prosecutors did not offer anything in exchange for his guilty plea. Victim impact statements are underway. Breanna Schermerhorn, the mother of victim Mason Schermerhorn, spoke: 'I have no doubt in my mind, if Colt had actually attended school, as he should have, that Mason would have befriended him.' She said she does not forgive Colt but had sympathy for him, saying his family and support system failed him. 'I can acknowledge that he was failed without excusing what he did,' she said. 'Mason deserved a future, and we all deserved a future with Mason in it,' she added. 'And Colt took that from Mason and everyone who loved him.' A non-negotiated guilty plea: Colt Gray is expected to plead guilty to 55 felony counts, including four counts of malice murder. Georgia law limits the judge to two choices for murder: Life in prison with the possibility of parole, or life without parole. Though Georgia allows the death penalty for murder, the US Supreme Court ruled in 2005 that people cannot be sentenced to death for crimes committed before age 18. Colin Gray, the father, is expected to be sentenced next week. A jury convicted him on all 27 charges: two counts of second-degree murder, two counts of involuntary manslaughter, 18 counts of cruelty to children and five counts of reckless conduct.