BARROW COUNTY, Ga. — Emotional testimony from Colin Gray’s 14-year-old daughter and hours of recorded interviews with investigators marked a pivotal seventh day in the trial of the father of the alleged Apalachee High School shooter.
Court wrapped up Tuesday with Barrow County Sheriff’s Office criminal investigator Jason Smith still on the stand. Jurors are expected on Wednesday morning to watch and listen to a more than two-hour recorded interview between Smith and Colin Gray.
But much of the day’s focus centered on Gray’s daughter, Jenni, who testified about what she described as a volatile home life and pressure from her father to protect him.
Jenni, the younger sister of Colt Gray and the middle child of Colin and his estranged wife Marcee, told jurors that her father urged her to “cover for him” before she was interviewed at the Tree House, a child advocacy center, about the family dynamic leading up to the September 2024 shooting.
She admitted on the stand that she lied during that earlier interview when asked whether her father knew about Colt’s obsession with school shooters and what she described as a “shrine” to the Parkland gunman, Nikolas Cruz.
Jenni and her younger brother are currently living with a foster family.
She testified that she has voluntarily chosen not to communicate with members of her family — aside from her brother — since 2024, describing her foster home as “more loving, more stable, and more family-like.”
Prosecutors indicated Jenni remains under subpoena and could be called again when the defense begins presenting its case.
Earlier in the day, jurors heard an hour-and-a-half on-site interview recorded by Georgia Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Lindsey Ward in the hours following the September 2024 shooting.
In the recording, an emotional Colin Gray detailed what he described as his son Colt’s deteriorating mental health, truancy issues, and growing aggression in the months before the shooting.
Gray also spoke about Colt’s fixation on school shooters and photographs on his wall of Nikolas Cruz, the gunman responsible for the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
Jurors heard Gray describe what he characterized as his son’s obsessive-compulsive tendencies surrounding a recently acquired Sig Sauer rifle, as well as struggles getting Colt to attend school.
The prosecution has argued that warning signs were evident long before the September 2024 attack.
Colin Gray’s former employer also took the stand Tuesday, corroborating Gray’s whereabouts at the time of the shooting.
However, testimony also revealed text messages and emails between Gray and his supervisors that prosecutors say appeared to underplay the severity of the incident on the day of the shooting.
Court is scheduled to resume Wednesday at 9 a.m., when jurors are expected to view the full recorded interview between Investigator Smith and Colin Gray.
Day 7 underscored a central question in the case: what Colin Gray knew about his son’s behavior and mindset — and whether he acted on it.
