Georgia school shooter handed victims' families 'life sentence of trauma', court hears

The wife of a teacher killed in a high school shooting in Georgia two years ago told a court on Friday that the families of the four victims had been handed 'a life sentence of grief and trauma' by the teenage student who murdered them. Shayna Aspinwall, whose husband Richard died at Apalachee high school, about 45 miles north-east Atlanta, on 4 September 2024, was speaking at the sentencing hearing for Colt Gray, 16, who earlier pleaded to 55 charges, including second-degree murder. Gray admitted during a state court hearing in Barrow county superior court in Winder, Georgia, that he carried out the attack, his 'non-negotiated' plea deal with prosecutors negating to need for a trial scheduled for October. The agreement meant no sentence was agreed, and instead superior court judge Nicholas Primm heard a summary of the case and evidence from the defense and prosecution before determining the punishment for Gray's conviction on 55 counts, including second-degree murder. Teachers Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53, were killed in the shooting, as well as students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14. Another teacher and eight other students were wounded, seven of them by gunshots. Shayna Aspinwall told the court that the lives of their daughters, who were two and five when their father died, will be 'forever marked by his absence.' 'It is a life sentence of grief and trauma for those left behind,' she said. Breanna Schermerhorn, whose son Mason was killed, said she did not forgive Colt Gray. While adults around him missed warning signs, she said, he decided to bring the gun and to pull the trigger. 'Those decisions were his and his alone,' she said. 'Mason deserved a future and we all deserved a future with Mason in it, and Colt took that from Mason and everyone who loved him.' Gray's father, Colin Gray, was convicted in March on charges including second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter, and is scheduled to be sentenced next week. Superior court judge Nicholas Primm questioned Gray to ensure he understood the consequences of his plea and was entering it voluntarily. Gray responded, 'Yes, your honor,' each time. Murder carries a minimum sentence of life in prison. The judge must decide whether Gray should be eligible for parole after hearing victim statements, evidence and each side's summary of the case. A teenage student who was wounded recalled: 'After the shooting, I struggled with so much anxiety, and I felt like my life was over.' Apalachee high school's principal, Jessica Rehberg, said Colt Gray's 'cruel actions' deserve 'the harshest consequences.' According to detectives from the Georgia bureau of investigation, Gray carried the rifle on to the school bus with the barrel wrapped in a poster board, then left his second-period class and emerged from a bathroom with the rifle. They said Gray planned the attack carefully, and left instructions and a diagram in a notebook that indicated he believed he could kill as many as 26 people and wound 13 others.