Teen gets life for killing 4 at school

Shooting in Georgia claimed two students and two teachers

A judge on Tuesday sentenced a teenager who killed two students and two teachers in a shooting at Apalachee High School in Georgia to serve life in prison without the possibility of parole, calling his crimes "deliberate, contemplated evil."

Colt Gray, 16, had pleaded guilty Friday to 55 counts, including murder, in the Sept. 4, 2024, shooting at the school about 45 miles northeast of Atlanta.

Barrow County Superior Court Judge Nicholas Primm handed down the sentence after hearing from family members of those killed and victims, as well as investigators, Gray's grandmother and a forensic psychologist who had evaluated Gray.

Murder carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison in Georgia, so the only decision Barrow County Superior Court Judge Nicholas Primm had to make was whether Gray should ever be eligible for parole.

"You do not seem to be tormented by what you did. You seem to relish following in the footsteps of the murderers you idolize. You aren't wracked with guilt. You're proud of yourself," Primm said.

"We've seen no evidence he has any ability to develop a conscience or any ability ever to fully value human life," District Attorney Brad Smith had said during his closing argument, insisting that Gray "cannot be in society."

Defense attorney W. Charlton Allen told the judge his client was "not irretrievably broken." Allowing him the possibility of parole would give him "an opportunity of hope," Allen said.

Victims got sentence they asked for

"This is not a happy day. This is a relief day, I would say," Smith told reporters after the sentencing, adding that he hoped his team had "done honor" to the victims and their loved ones.

Teachers Richard "Ricky" Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53, and students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14, died in the shooting. Another teacher and eight more students were wounded, seven of them hit by gunfire.

Victims of the shooting and family members of those killed conveyed their anger and grief to Primm on Friday, almost all of them asking him not to allow the possibility of parole.

Shayna Aspinwall, the wife of math teacher and football coach Richard Aspinwall, described "a life sentence of grief and trauma for those left behind."