The mother of mass school shooter Colt Gray had threatened to kill her estranged husband less than a year before their son gunned down four people at Apalachee High School in Georgia, DailyMail.com can exclusively reveal.
Marcee Gray, 43, has a criminal record spanning more than 17 years, and was in jail as recently as April, court records show.
The former quality engineer was arrested in November in Barrow County, suspected of possessing methamphetamine, fentanyl and muscle relaxants.
She also faced charges of aggravated battery, theft by taking, criminal trespass, false imprisonment and failure to appear in January, in nearby Fitzgerald County.
Sources told DailyMail.com that the mother-of-three ‘threatened to kill her husband’ during one of the incidents.
She also ‘tied up’ her elderly mother and left her for 24 hours.
It is unclear exactly what sparked the spiral, but Marcee Gray had previously posted online about ‘what substance abuse can do’ to a family.
She had made several concerning Facebook posts throughout the years, sharing her struggles with estranged husband Colin Gray, who she accused of abuse.
In November, 2022, Marcee Gray wrote: ‘From my husband’s first memory, all he knew was abuse. Severe physical abuse (I’m talking everything from getting a broken arm at age 8 while he was totally asleep to having a barstool crack his skull open…I still rub my fingers across the scar/gouge on his scalp and think to myself “How?! I can’t even comprehend it!”…that is what substance abuse can do. To a mama, a daddy, a spouse, a sibling….you name it and it will reach them.’
The same day, Marcee said in a different post: ‘I know it’s hard to understand from the outside looking in. Everyone in my and his family couldn’t understand why I stayed as long as I did. Ultimately it was my own decision…
‘I made a commitment to the Lord and my husband. No one but me understands the pain that my husband lives with every single day. Every single person in his life has hurt or betrayed him… And I truly believe that the Lord sent me to him because no one else was strong enough to stay by his side through thick and thin. I’m not about to give up on him now… We are just taking a break.’
The next month, Marcee wrote on LinkedIn: ‘Finally separated from my abusive husband of almost 14yrs… Hardest shit I’ve ever done but we’re in good hands.’
In May, 2023, she said in a post: ‘I packed myself and my babies up and relocated to my hometown in south GA. We are all good and my kids are thriving.’
The same month, police contacted Colin Gray after receiving an FBI tip that Colt Gray had threatened to shoot up his school on the platform Discord.
Speaking to police at the time, Colin Gray said he had recently separated from his son’s mother, and that ‘she took his younger two’ kids.
Marcee Gray pleaded guilty in December, 2023, to one count of using a license plate to conceal identity, criminal damage to property in the second degree and criminal trespass/family violence.
She was prosecuted under Georgia’s First Offender Act, which allows eligible defendants to plead guilty without being convicted.
Court record indicate that she was not actually charged with drug possession in relation to her arrest.
An arrest warrant obtained by DailyMail.com states that Gray had a glass jar containing methamphetamine, a ‘baggie’ containing fentanyl, another ‘baggie’ containing multiple muscle relaxants, and a glass pipe ‘used for the ingestion of narcotics.’
She also concealed the identity of her Nissan Rogue by affixing a tag for a Nissan Kick, the warrant states.
Court documents show that she was sentenced to five years in jail, the first 46 days to be spent in confinement and the remainder on probation.
A condition of her probation banned her from having contact with her husband, except through a third party for matters concerning their children or divorce. She was also ordered to pay $1,500 in restitution and made to participate in a family violence intervention program and to stay away from drugs and alcohol.
Court records also showed that she had misdemeanor traffic offences in 2019, 2014, 2008 and 2007.
The earlier charges included driving under the influence of alcohol, and was fined $600, sentenced to 12 months of probation and ordered to complete 40 hours of community service.
Gray was also sued in 2019 by Nash Chevrolet Company, which claimed she bought a 2018 Chevrolet Suburban in September 2018 using a $10,000 check as a down payment. The check, which had both Gray and her husband’s names on it, was ‘dishonored due to lack of funds.’
In February 2020, Gray was ordered to pay the dealership just over $19,000, reflecting the money initially owed for the vehicle as well as interest, attorney fees and punitive damages.
It comes as her 14-year-old son has been charged as an adult with four counts of murder. His father Colin has also been charged in connection with the killings after he reportedly told police he bought the weapon used in the massacre as a holiday present for his son.
The teenager Gray is accused of shooting two of his fellow students and two teachers at the school Wednesday morning, with nine others taken to hospital with injuries.
He reportedly had an obsession with other infamous school shooters such as Parkland, Florida killer Nikolas Cruz.
When police searched the teen’s Georgia home following the bloodbath, they reportedly found clues the teenager was ‘obsessed’ with mass shootings – specifically the Parkland massacre in 2018, which left 17 people dead.
Gray was known to the FBI after several tips came in about him last year.
In May 2023, officers from Jackson County questioned both Gray and his father about a Discord channel believed to be linked to the then-13-year-old which allegedly made threats about a school shooting.
The Discord account had a user name written in Russian, and the translation of the letters spelled out the name Lanza, referencing Adam Lanza, the perpetrator of the Sandy Hook Elementary school tragedy, officers said.
The teen denied he was the author of the threats, telling police he’d shut down his Discord after being repeatedly hacked. He expressed concerns that someone would make those accusations about him.
Gray’s father Colin told investigators at the time that his son ‘knows the seriousness of weapons and what they can do, and how to use them and not use them.’
Colin reportedly assured officers that he would be ‘mad as hell’ if he learned the allegations about his son making threats were true, and that ‘all the guns [would] go away.’
The report also stated that deputies were unable to substantiate the information in the tip to take further action.