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. He decided the teenager should never be allowed out.“You do not seem to be tormented by what you did,” Primm said. “You seem to relish following in the footsteps of the murderers you idolize. You aren’t wracked with guilt. You’re proud of yourself.“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, adding that a lack of hope “takes away the ability for him to change.”The victims got the sentence they asked for
