Gray told Judge Nicholas Primm that he understood the consequences of his plea, including forfeiting his rights to a jury trial or an appeal and the likelihood of a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
He also told the judge he suffered from mental health issues for which he was taking medication.
Victims’ families said they hoped the judge would hand down a life sentence without parole.
Shayna Aspinwall spoke about the loss of her husband.
“The future we planned together no longer exists,” she said. “Now, our daughters, who were five and two at the time, must grow up without their father… I ask that Ricky’s killer is not given an opportunity for parole.”
Ismael Angulo, brother to Christian, told the court the shooting “shattered thousands of lives in a single instant”.
“While the law spares him from the ultimate penalty due to his age, it does not require this court to ever grant him freedom again.”
The court also heard from several of the teenage survivors, who read out statements recounting the impacts on their lives.
“After the shooting, I struggled with so much anxiety, and I felt that my life was completely over,” Taylor Jones, who was shot and injured, said. “I couldn’t do anything a normal 14-year-old should be able to do.”
Testimony was heard from police officer Jason Smith, who interviewed Gray in the shooting’s aftermath.
He appeared visibly emotional as he talked about a map of the school and evidence investigators found on Gray’s cellphone and in a notebook, indicating months of planning.
Gray had made drawings of his classroom, written a step-by-step guide of how he was going to carry out the shooting and listed casualty numbers he anticipated. Gray’s attorneys are not contesting the evidence.
The shooting shocked the state and renewed discussions about gun violence in US schools. The prosecution and subsequent conviction of Gray’s father, Colin Gray, marked the third time a US parent was held responsible for a shooting carried out by their child. He is set to be sentenced next week.
Prosecutors had argued the father was “the one person who could have prevented” the shooting and that he knew his son “was a bomb just waiting to go off” when he gave him the gun.
