High School 'Shooter' Colt Gray's Dad May 'Dodge Life Sentence': 'He Didn’t Pull the Trigger'

After allegedly taking the lives of four innocent people and injuring many others during a shooting rampage at Apalachee High School in Georgia, supposed killer Colt Gray's father may not be facing the rest of his life in prison for supplying his son with the deadly weapon.

In an unprecedented move, Colin Gray, 54, was hit with murder charges when authorities learned he bought his 14-year-old the AR-15-style gun used in the tragedy as a Christmas present.

However, according to former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani, it's unlikely Colin will have as harsh a punishment as Colt.

"The basis is what we call depraved-heart murder," the attorney told The Sun. "You’re playing Russian roulette with people’s lives - that is depraved heart murder."

As RadarOnline.com previosuly reported, on Wednesday, September 4, students Mason Schermerhorn, 14, Christian Angulo, 14, and teachers Richard Aspinwall and Christina Irimie died and nine other people were severely injured in the attack at the school. Colt was arrested and charged with four felony counts of murder and will be tried as an adult. He declined to enter a plea at his first court appearance Friday.

In a shocking twist, Colin was also slapped with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder, and eight counts of cruelty to children for the purchase of the gun.

The only other time a parent was punished legally in relation to their offspring's crimes was Oxford High School shooter Ethan Crumbley, whose mother and father were charged with involuntary manslaughter.

"This is all really uncharted legal waters," Neama explained of the circumstances. "You have two cases where the parents are affirmatively arming their kids. That’s just beyond the pale and beyond reckless."

The judge in the case warned Colin he would be facing 180 years in prison for Colt's alleged crimes. However, the trial lawyer doesn't feel that will be the case. "He didn’t pull the trigger," Neama pointed out.

"I don’t think he’s actually going to get a life sentence or anything near it," he added. "I don’t think there’s going to be 180 years or even 100 years or even 50 years."

To make matters worse, both parties were interviewed by the FBI a year before the shooting after they received "several anonymous tips about online threats to commit a school shooting at an unidentified location and time." However, the teenager claimed he was hacked on his social media account.

"The danger was apparent and he still bought him a very dangerous weapon," Neama said. "So that’s the Russian roulette that we’re talking about. There’s not a whole lot of precedent for this but this is a very egregious case. I do believe the charges are appropriate."

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The father and son are set to appear in court for their preliminary hearings on December 4.

"When he was taken into custody on Wednesday, we did not have the identities or the conditions of the other victims. So we were not able to charge on those offenses," Barrow County District Attorney Brad Smith said in a press conference before the victims were identified. “So when evidence comes in, and they’ve had a chance to heal physically, emotionally and spiritually, we will get with them, and there will be additional charges that address the other victims.”