The mother of a 14-year-old accused of killing four people and wounding others at Apalachee High School in Georgia testified on Monday that her son’s behavior was “alarming” when he came to live with her in 2023.
Marcee Gray, the estranged wife of Colin Gray, took the stand Monday to discuss their son’s behavior prior to the Sept. 4, 2024 shooting. Colin Gray is accused of giving their son access to a firearm. His trial began last week.
Colin Gray is charged with two counts of second-degree murder, two counts of involuntary manslaughter, 20 counts of cruelty to children and five counts of reckless conduct.
Their son, Colt Gray, is accused of opening fire at the Georgia high school on Sept. 4, 2024, killing two students, two teachers and wounding nine others. He has been charged as an adult with four counts of felony murder. A trial date has not been set for him yet.
The victims of the shooting were identified as Mason Schermerhorn, 14; Christian Angulo, 14; Richard Aspinwall, 39; and Cristina Irimie, 53.
Marcee Gray said she moved out of a shared home with her two other children, Jenny and Colee, in 2022, but Colin and Colt stayed behind. In the summer of 2023, Colt came to live with her, she said.
She described her son’s behavior as “alarming,” and “very different” from the son she left with his dad.
“He had a lot of anger inside, and he was very aggressive and unpredictable,” Marcee Gray said. “So much so that I ended up relocating his little sister across town to my parents house because I didn’t want to leave her there alone with him. And then his little brother basically just never left my side.”
She said Colt damaged flat screen TVs inside the home, broke windows, carved things on surfaces with knives and wrote things on the walls. The incidents led to Marcee Gray’s father contacting the police twice, which eventually led to Colt moving back in with his father.
Marcee Gray said Colin Gray blamed her for calling the police on their son and convinced Colt that she had done so.
“I was trying to trying to get him, sent, you know, to juvenile detention,” Marcee Gray said in court Monday. “And once he had him convinced of that, Colt refused to talk to me, he just wanted to go back with his dad.”
Marcee Gray said she arranged a counseling session for her son that he never attended, and testified that Colin Gray did not enroll their son into the eighth grade when he went to live with him.
Not long after, Marcee Gray, who had an open Department of Human Services Division of Family & Children Services case against her, failed a drug test and the other two children were also sent to live with their dad, she said.
“I was faced with the reality that Jenny and Colee were now living in the house with their dad, where things were horrific. And there was nothing I could do about it,” she said.
Colin Gray’s trial began last week, with the prosecution arguing that his actions led to the 2024 shooting, while defense attorneys contended there is no way he could have known his son would cause harm.
On Tuesday, 14 Apalachee High School students took the stand to speak about the day of the shooting. Nautica Watson recalled passing out after being shot in the leg, and worrying about dying and how it would impact her parents.
Another student, William Cariker, sent out a mass text to eight of his loved ones when the shooter was at his classroom door.
“There’s a school shooting if I don’t make it I love you all,” Cariker wrote.
