Grandmother of Georgia school shooter testifies in Colin Gray’s murder trial
By Eric Levenson, CNN
(CNN) — Deborah Polhamus, the maternal grandmother of teenage school shooter Colt Gray, took the stand to testify Friday in the murder trial of his father Colin Gray.
Polhamus is expected to tell the jury she had concerns about Colt Gray’s mental health prior to the school shooting and relayed those concerns to the teen’s father, according to the prosecution’s opening statements.
Colin Gray has pleaded not guilty to nearly 30 charges, including two counts each of second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter, in connection with the mass shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, in September 2024 that left four people dead and nine wounded.
Prosecutors allege Colin Gray bought his son the AR-15-style rifle used in the shooting despite previous warnings that his son was a danger to others, actions that constitute criminally reckless conduct.
Colin Gray’s defense attorney said in opening statements that he was unaware his son was planning the shooting and had taken steps to try to get him help.
The trial began Monday with opening statements and has featured emotional testimony from surviving students, teachers and the officers who responded to the attack.
On Thursday, prosecutors presented testimony showing what Colin Gray knew about his son and what he did about it.
School officials laid out Colt Gray’s history of school misbehavior and spotty attendance record. He raised alarms at multiple middle schools, including when he searched “how to kill your dad” on a school computer in August 2021, and when he was suspended in spring 2022 for drawing swastikas and writing “Hitler” on his calculator, school officials said.
The teen did not appear to attend any school, online or otherwise, for his eighth grade year in 2023-2024, when he was under his father’s care. He attended only a few days of high school before he carried out the attack on September 4, 2024.
Prosecutors also showed the jury Colin Gray’s statements to police on body-camera footage immediately following the school shooting. Law enforcement officers went to his home and told him he couldn’t leave.
“God. I knew it,” Gray said, according to the footage. “My little girl just texted me, she’s in middle school, she said ‘We’re in lockdown.’ I’m like, ‘God almighty, please tell me your brother didn’t do something.’”
It’s not clear what the officers said to him prior to this comment. Prosecutors said in opening statements Colin Gray “blurt(ed)” it out.
Colin Gray’s trial is part of a broader push to hold more people accountable for a school shooting, including the shooter’s parents and responding law enforcement officers. This case bears close similarities to the trials of James and Jennifer Crumbley, whose then-15-year-old son killed four students in 2021 at his high school in Oxford, Michigan.
Colt Gray, then 14, ultimately surrendered to police and has admitted to the shooting, according to authorities. Now 16, he has pleaded not guilty to 55 felony counts, including four counts of malice murder. A trial date has not been set.
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
