Georgia school shooter Colt Gray sought notoriety, investigator says ahead of sentencing

By Eric Levenson, Sarah Hutter, Andy Rose, Isabel Rosales, Devon M. Sayers, Danya Gainor, CNN

Winder, Georgia (CNN) — Colt Gray, the Georgia teen who fatally shot four people at his high school in 2024, carried out the attack “to gain some sort of fame or notoriety from it,” Ashley Gilleland, an investigator with the Barrow County District Attorney’s Office, testified Tuesday.

After the shooting, he repeatedly asked his mother to search his name online and bring him “fan art” of himself, according to jail phone calls played in court.

“I’m in the big leagues, bro. And not in a bad way,” he said in one call.

The testimony came on the final day of a three-day sentencing hearing that has revealed new details about his planning, motive and mental health.

Several more witnesses are expected to testify today, including the teen’s grandmother, as prosecutors and defense attorneys debate whether he can ever be rehabilitated. Colt, now 16, will also have a chance to speak before the judge decides whether to sentence him to life in prison with or without the possibility of parole.

The hearing comes nearly two years after Colt carried out the attack at Apalachee High School, the deadliest school shooting in Georgia history. Colt, just 14 at the time, took an AR-15-style rifle to school and fatally shot teachers Richard Aspinwall and Cristina Irimie and students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo; nine others were also injured.

Colt surrendered to police that day and has remained behind bars since. He pleaded guilty Friday to 55 charges, including four counts of murder.

The extended hearing has featured emotional impact statements from victims’ families and shooting survivors, as well as never-before-seen evidence of the teen’s confession and desire for infamy.

Even after Tuesday, the Apalachee shooting and the Gray family will remain in the news.

The teen’s father, Colin Gray, was found guilty of murder and manslaughter charges in March for purchasing his son the firearm and keeping it unsecured despite warnings that Colt was a danger to others. He faces decades in prison and is expected to be sentenced on Thursday.

The next day, about five miles south of the Barrow County Courthouse, students will return to Apalachee High School for the first day of the new school year.

New clues about shooter’s motive

Evidence from both the prosecution and the defense has shown how Colt tried to copy and reference other mass shooters.

Gilleland testified Monday about writings in Colt’s journal and statements to police that were inspired by other mass shootings, including the 2012 Aurora, Colorado, movie theater massacre; the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting; and the 2018 Parkland school shooting.

In messages read aloud in court Monday, Colt wrote about his longing for fame and his obsession with Nikolas Cruz, the Parkland school shooter.

“(I) wanna make history to put it short,” Colt wrote on the messaging platform Discord more than a year before the shooting. “I want people to remember the pain I caused and research me for hours.”

“My love for Nik has formed into something in which I can find no other resort that can prove my love and affection towards him,” he wrote in a message days before the shooting.

Tony Montalto, president of the advocacy group Stand with Parkland, said in a statement it was “especially painful to learn that he idolized the murderer who attacked our children and spouses and used that tragedy as inspiration.”

Kevin Richards, a forensic psychologist, testified for the defense Monday about Colt’s mental health issues. He said the teen’s paranoia, depression and anxiety were exacerbated by neglect and abuse at home and an online fixation with mass shooters.

Colt’s father’s trial earlier this year revealed the extent of the teen’s tumultuous childhood. His mother struggled with drug and alcohol addiction, and the family moved repeatedly. Family members spoke about Colt’s deteriorating mental health, and school records show he was repeatedly absent from class, including missing his entire eighth-grade year.

“He was a lonely, dysfunctional kid who was anxious, paranoid, depressed and immersed in this highly dysfunctional world with these people who were obsessed with folks who had done school shootings,” Richards said.

Richards reviewed case files and interviewed Colt for about 15 hours for his analysis, he said. He testified that Colt could improve with proper interventions and medication.

But on cross-examination, Richards said Colt had exaggerated his mental health symptoms and made things up to try to get a more serious diagnosis. Colt did not show signs of mania, insanity, schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, Richards said, and there was no evidence he had hallucinations.

On Friday, the courtroom heard recordings of Colt’s interview with investigators less than an hour after the shooting. Sobbing and gasping, he apologized and offered paranoid, hallucinatory explanations for his actions, saying he believed teachers were plotting against him. He also told investigators he believed he should be in a mental health facility.

However, several of his statements were later proved false, including those about where he found the firearm and his claim that he called a suicide hotline before the attack. Barrow County Sheriff’s Office investigator Jason Smith said he believed Colt’s hysterical state was “performative.”

Lasting impacts of the attack

Friday’s hearing belonged to the victims. One after another, family members and survivors stood before the court, describing who they were before September 4, 2024, and who they have become since.

“I started to hate myself because I couldn’t truly live anymore, because I let you take every piece of joy I had away from me,” said Nautica Walton, who was in ninth grade when she was shot in the leg.

“I hate everything about you,” she told Colt. “I hate the scars you left on my body. I hate that you took innocent lives in front of innocent people. Most of all, I hate that I let you live in my mind.”

Others acknowledged Colt’s difficult childhood while making clear it could never justify his actions.

“Two things can be true at the same time,” said Sarah Beaver, the mother of shooting survivor Jaxson Beaver. “He was a child who was failed. He was also the person who failed countless innocent children and their families.”

“The defendant’s family will still get to see their son, talk to him and know he is breathing,” said Ismael Angulo Jr., the oldest sibling of victim Christian Angulo. “My mother (and) my father don’t get that privilege. The only way to visit Christian now is by standing over his grave.”

He added: “There is no fairness in that reality.”

CNN’s Alaa Elassar and Rebekah Riess contributed to this report.

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