In usually tearful and painful testimony, college students wounded in a 2024 mass taking pictures at a Georgia highschool took the witness stand on Tuesday within the murder trial of the alleged gunman’s father.
Because the defendant, 55-year-old Colin Grey, sat simply ft away listening, the scholars recounted the horror they endured on Sept. 4, 2024, at Apalachee Excessive Faculty in Winder, Georgia, allegedly by the hands of Grey’s then 14-year-old son, Colt.
Decide Nicholas Primm, who’s presiding over the case, ordered the media to not present the scholars’ faces in the course of the televised trial. The protection didn’t cross-examine any of the scholars who testified.
All the college students who testified Tuesday stated they have been in algebra trainer Cassandra Ryan’s class once they heard a loud bang outdoors their classroom door.
Colin Grey, the daddy of Apalachee Excessive Faculty taking pictures suspect Colt Grey, appears down as his lawyer provides his opening assertion on the Barrow County courthouse, February 16, 2026, in Winder, Georgia.
Jason Getz/AP
“I bear in mind standing up and turning my again in the direction of the door, and that is after I noticed him, Colt. He was pointing the weapon, simply aiming anyplace, I assume,” testified Melany Delira-Castaneda, who was a freshman on the time of the taking pictures.
The now 16-year-old lady testified that she did not understand she had been shot till after the gunshots subsided.
“I bear in mind standing up and I circled. I did not know I used to be shot, however I used to be. My physique was telling me to carry my arm, so I used to be holding my arm,” Delira-Castaneda testified. “I believe I used to be simply in shock and scared.”
She stated she was shot within the shoulder.
“I really feel like simply seeing lots of what I noticed that day, it simply sticks with me, and never having the ability to belief sure folks,” Delira-Castaneda informed the courtroom.
Prosecutors referred to as the scholars to testify in an effort to indicate what Barrow County District Lawyer Brad Smith described in his opening assertion because the “horrific penalties” of the alleged actions or inaction Colin Grey took together with his son main as much as the taking pictures.
Grey is the newest father or mother that prosecutors in numerous U.S. states have tried to carry criminally culpable for his or her youngsters’s alleged lethal actions.
The daddy is charged with 4 counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree homicide and eight counts of cruelty to youngsters. He has pleaded not responsible to the costs.
Grey’s son, Colt, now 16, has been charged as an grownup and is awaiting a separate trial on a number of counts of felony homicide and aggravated assault. He has pleaded not responsible.
Killed in the shooting have been math trainer and soccer coach Richard Aspinwall, 39; math trainer Cristina Irimie, 53; and college students Mason Schermerhorn, 14, and Christian Angulo, 14, officers stated.
Angulo was additionally in Ryan’s class when he was shot and killed.
“This case is about this defendant and his actions – his actions in permitting a baby that he has custody over entry to a firearm and ammunition after being warned that his youngster was going to hurt others,” Smith stated in his opening statement on Monday.
Prosecutors allege that regardless of repeatedly being warned about his son’s psychological deterioration and that he was a hazard to himself and others, Colin Grey gave the boy an AR-15-style rifle as a Christmas current and allowed him to maintain the weapon propped towards a wall in his bed room. The rifle, prosecutors allege, was used within the mass taking pictures at Apalachee Excessive Faculty.
Nautica Walton, one other pupil in Ryan’s algebra class on the day of the taking pictures, testified on Tuesday that when she heard a loud bang outdoors the classroom door, “I noticed one thing was improper.”
“I bear in mind my trainer falling to the ground, after which Taylor, [a student] in entrance of me, I bear in mind seeing her fall down earlier than I circled and noticed there was someone on the door with a weapon,” Nautica, now 16, testified.
She informed the courtroom that she obtained on the bottom subsequent to Melany Delira-Castaneda.
“I bear in mind Melany, she had blood all on her arm. I bear in mind her blood was getting on the facet of me as a result of I used to be mendacity on the facet of her,” Walton testified.
Barrow County District Lawyer Brad Smith factors to a weapon, February 16, 2026, that defendant Colin Grey allegedly gave his son, Colt Grey, as a Christmas current, which {the teenager} allegedly utilized in a mass taking pictures at Apalachee Excessive Faculty in Winder, Georgia.
Jason Getz/AP
Walton additional testified that she was shot within the leg in the course of the episode and recalled going out and in of consciousness.
“I bear in mind my trainer telling me to remain awake as a result of I used to be feeling actually drained,” Walton stated on the witness stand. “I bear in mind Natalie [another student] mendacity on the ground, saying she was hit and crying with an enormous puddle of blood,” stated Walton, including {that a} classmate took off her jacket and wrapped it round her leg.
“After which I handed out after that,” she testified.
Walton additionally informed the courtroom that because the taking pictures, she has been unable to play sports activities and has been “very paranoid.”
“I do not like being in entrance of doorways at college. I do not use the toilet at college,” testified Walton, including that she had nightmares for months after the taking pictures.
Scholar Taylor Jones, now 16, testified that when she realized she had been shot within the leg, she requested a classmate to carry her hand “as a result of I used to be scared.”
She informed the courtroom that she remembers being on the classroom ground earlier than she handed out after which waking up at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, the place she was flown to by a medical helicopter.
This mix of reserving photographs supplied by the Barrow County, Georgia, Sheriff’s Workplace reveals Colin Grey, left, and his son, Colt Grey, who’ve been charged in relation to the Sept. 4, 2024, shootings at Apalachee Excessive Faculty in Winder, Georgia.
AP
Jones, a one-time volleyball participant on her faculty staff, informed the courtroom that she has since undergone a number of surgical procedures and has been unable to play sports activities.
Natalie Griffith, now 16, recalled to the courtroom trying down at her hand in the course of the taking pictures and seeing a gap and blood close to her wrist.
“I did not know this on the time, however I had one other one up on my shoulder,” she testified of a second bullet wound. “I used to be additionally anxious that I used to be going to die and the way that might have an effect on my mother and father as a result of my dad has a coronary heart drawback.”
Griffith informed the courtroom that as she was being carried out of the classroom, she noticed Colt Grey on the ground being detained together with his fingers behind his again.
“I stated lots of curse phrases. I used to be very indignant on the time as a result of I assumed they have been going to should amputate my hand,” Griffith testified. “I bear in mind yelling at him that we have been youngsters, as a result of we have been youngsters.”
Jaxxon Beaver, 16, one other pupil within the algebra class, testified that he was additionally shot within the leg.
“I observed that after I was damage, I seemed down and noticed a gap in my shorts and observed I used to be bleeding,” Beaver stated on the stand.
Beaver additional testified that he was unable to go to highschool for not less than three months after the taking pictures, and ultimately gave up on going again.
“Each time I went again to highschool, I might really feel like one thing unhealthy was going to occur once more. I could not wait and needed to go house, like proper after,” Beaver testified.
Ronaldo Vega, now 16, recalled to the courtroom seeing Colt Grey on the door sporting yellow gloves and firing a rifle that had a scope.
“He shot, I do not know what number of occasions. I went all the way down to duck,” Vega testified.
Vega testified that when the taking pictures stopped, he barricaded the classroom door with desks and chairs. He stated he noticed Christian Angulo curled up on the ground immobile close to the door.
“A woman was screaming that he was lifeless,” Vega informed the courtroom.
