A new trial date has been set for the father of the Apalachee High School shooting suspect after defense attorneys asked for a delay earlier this year.
Barrow County Superior Court Judge Nicholas Primm issued an order Wednesday to set Colin Gray’s trial for Feb. 6. The trial had been slated to start Monday.
The scheduling update came the day before the one-year anniversary of the Sept. 4, 2024, shooting, which killed four people and injured nine others.
Gray’s trial was delayed in July because his attorneys both had trials scheduled to start this month in Fulton County. In Georgia, older cases take precedence over newer cases, particularly when a trial date has been set.
Primm had tried to reach out to both of those Fulton judges to strike an agreement about trial scheduling but said during a hearing he never heard back.
Gray is the first parent of a mass school shooting suspect to be charged in connection with the crime in Georgia. His trial will take place in Barrow County. However, earlier this year, Primm decided to bring in jurors from neighboring Hall County.
An initial batch of 600 jury notices was set to be sent out to Hall residents before the trial was postponed.
Gray faces 29 charges, including two counts of second-degree murder, two counts of involuntary manslaughter, five counts of reckless conduct and 20 counts of child cruelty.
According to the indictment, Colin Gray allowed his son, Colt Gray, then 14, “access to a firearm and ammunition after receiving sufficient warning that Colt Gray would harm and endanger the bodily safety of another” and caused “with criminal negligence” the death of the four victims.
Two students — Christian Angulo and Mason Schermerhorn — and two teachers — Cristina Irimie and Richard Aspinwall — died in the attack.
Colt Gray was indicted on 55 charges, including felony murder, malice murder, aggravated battery, cruelty to children in the first degree and aggravated assault. He pleaded not guilty, waived arraignment, and did not appear in court in November.
If convicted, the teenager faces life in prison.
An October hearing had been tentatively scheduled in Colt Gray’s case to consider allowing his father’s trial to go first. It is unclear when that hearing will be scheduled.
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