Georgia teen to appear in plea hearing over 2024 school shooting that killed four people

The teenager accused of killing two students and two teachers during a 2024 shooting at Apalachee high school in Georgia has been scheduled to appear in court later in July for a “non-negotiated” plea hearing, according to records.Documents filed on Friday in Barrow county superior court in Winder, Georgia, show that Colt Gray is expected to change his plea at a hearing on 24 July, with the court scheduled to hold proceedings for both the plea and sentencing, as the Associated Press reported.Previously charged as an adult, the 16-year-old Gray had entered a not guilty plea. He faces 55 criminal counts, including malice murder, aggravated battery, and aggravated assault in connection with a shooting when he was 14.The second-degree murder charges alone carry a potential sentence of up to 30 years in prison, and he could face as much as 180 years overall.In late 2025, Gray’s attorneys said plea negotiations were under way, after which the judge imposed a deadline.The judge, in a filing submitted on Friday, assigned to the case a “non-negotiated plea and sentencing hearing” beginning on 24 July.A non-negotiated plea means prosecutors and the defense have not agreed on a sentence, which is in contrast to a negotiated plea, or plea deal.Defendants involved in non-negotiated pleas agree to plead guilty in exchange for an agreed-upon sentence and potentially reduced charges, a non-negotiated plea leaves the sentencing decision entirely with the judge after hearing summaries of the case and sentencing recommendations from both sides.The judge had earlier instructed that if Gray intended to plead guilty before trial, he had to notify both the court and prosecutors by this 15 July.Gray has remained in a juvenile detention center since he was arrested in the Apalachee school shooting.Colin Gray, his father, was found guilty in March of second-degree murder in the shooting. Colin Gray’s prosecution marked the third instance in which a parent faced criminal charges tied to a mass shooting allegedly carried out by their child – the first such case in Georgia.Prosecutors accused Colin Gray of “criminal negligence”, arguing that he allowed his son access to a firearm and ammunition after “receiving sufficient warning that Colt Gray would harm and endanger the bodily safety of another”. They also contended that he disregarded multiple violent incidents involving his son over several years.Colin Gray reacts after a jury convicted him of second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter at Barrow county courthouse in Winder, Georgia, on 3 March 2026. Photograph: Abbey Cutrer/APColin Gray acknowledged giving his son the rifle used in the attack but told the court he did so in hopes of strengthening their relationship through hunting and trips to the shooting range.According to investigators, in September 2024, Gray brought a semiautomatic assault-style rifle on to a school bus, with the barrel protruding from a book bag wrapped in poster board. He later left his second-period class, emerged from a bathroom carrying the rifle, and opened fire in a classroom and throughout the school’s hallways, investigators say.The victims killed in the attack were identified as Richard Aspinwall, 39; Christina Irimie, 53; and 14-year-olds Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo. Another teacher and eight more students were wounded in a case that fit the definitions of both a mass murder and mass shooting.The Gun Violence Archive defines a mass murder as a case in which at least four people are killed. The nonpartisan resource defines a mass shooting as a case in which four or more victims are wounded or shot.The US perennially reports high numbers of each kind of case, including at schools, prompting many to call for more substantial federal gun control. But Congress over the years has not implemented such restrictions.