Here’s why the mother of the Apalachee school shooter isn’t facing charges

ATLANTA (ANF/Gray News) - The mother of convicted school shooter Colt Gray wasn’t present when her son was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on Tuesday.

His father, Colin Gray, was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Thursday after being convicted back in March on multiple charges, including second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter, reckless conduct and second-degree child cruelty.

But the prosecuting district attorney in both cases said he doesn’t foresee Marcee Gray facing any charges in connection to the Sept. 4, 2024, mass shooting at Apalachee High School.

“Make no mistakes, Marcee is disgusting and her actions are contemptible. But he’s the one directing her what to do,” Barrow County DA Brad Smith said while on the stand for Colt’s hearing and referring to looking at Gray’s “fame” on social platforms.

While “Mrs. Gray should have noticed” her son’s involvement with the True Crime Community subculture, Smith said after the hearing that any trial involving Marcee Gray would involve her son as a victim.

“I don’t think I can stomach a trial where Colt Gray is the victim,” Smith said after Piedmont Superior Court Judge Nicholas Primm announced the sentence earlier this week.

Smith also said Marcee Gray had been barred from entering Barrow County for much of the time leading up to the shooting.

“She was here maybe three months out of the two years before the shooting,” he said, adding “any other crimes for which she may or may not be guilty are outside Barrow County.”

Colt Gray, now 16, pleaded guilty to all 55 charges in the shooting, which killed teachers Cristina Irimie and Ricky Aspinwall and 14-year-old students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo.

In her husband’s trial, Marcee Gray testified she had “no idea” police had responded to school shooting threats ahead of the Apalachee shooting until the story broke in the media a year before her testimony.

On Tuesday, prosecutors played jail calls between Colt Gray and his mother, and the transcripts revealed how Colt Gray asked Marcee Gray to post photos of him online after the shooting. He then asked his mother to read him all of the comments and “likes.”

“Can you believe I’m more popular than Thomas Crooks?” Colt Gray exclaimed, referring to the man who attempted to assassinate Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, in 2026.

In one call, Marcee Gray called her son “a celebrity.”