Apalachee High School shooting suspect set to change plea, court documents show

Colt Gray, the teen accused of fatally shooting two students and two teachers in 2024 at Apalachee High School in Georgia, will appear in court for a “non-negotiated” plea hearing later this month, court documents show.

The documents, filed Friday in Barrow County Superior Court in Winder, Georgia, indicate Gray is set to change his plea when the parties are ordered to appear before the court on July 24 for a plea and sentencing hearing. 

Gray had been charged as an adult and previously pleaded not guilty. The teen is facing a total of 55 counts, including malice murder, aggravated battery and aggravated assault. He faces up to 30 years in prison for the second-degree murder charges and up to 180 years in total. Gray’s attorneys indicated in late 2025 that he was negotiating a plea deal. The judge then set a deadline.

Gray, who was 14 at the time of the shooting, has remained in custody at a juvenile detention center since his arrest.

His father, Colin Gray, was convicted in March of second-degree murder and all other charges. Gray was the first adult charged in connection with a school shooting in Georgia. His prosecution was the third time a parent has been charged for their connection to a mass shooting allegedly carried out by their child.

Prosecutors said he ignored multiple instances of violence conducted by his son throughout the years. Gray admitted to giving his son the rifle used in the school shooting but told the court he did that in hopes of bonding with his child while hunting and shooting at the gun range.

In September 2024, Gray carried a semiautomatic assault-style rifle onto the school bus, with the barrel sticking out of his book bag, wrapped up in a poster board. He left his second-period class and then emerged from a bathroom with the rifle before shooting people in a classroom and hallways.

He allegedly left a notebook with handwritten instructions detailing the steps to prepare for the violence and a diagram of his classroom.