The texts were shown in court on the fifth and likely final day of a Los Angeles hearing to determine whether he’ll go to trial in her killing.

As she neared his Hollywood home shortly after 10 a.m. on April 23, 2025, in an Uber he had sent to pick her up, she sent her final text: “girly pop i’m almost there open ur door if ur home.”

Prosecutors allege D4vd, whose legal name is David Burke, when she came through the door.

The night before, the two argued via text about his relationship with a woman. She sent him an angry and profane text saying she will tell her dad so many lies about him and “i will end ur career and ur life.”

Detective Corey Farrell of the Los Angeles Police Department, under questioning from the prosecution, read the texts that were obtained from warrants on Burke’s iPhone and iCloud accounts.

The hearing will end with a decision from Judge Charlaine Olmedo on whether to put the 21-year-old Burke on trial on charges of murder, sexual abuse of a child under 14 and mutilation of a body.

He has pleaded not guilty and his lawyers have said he didn’t cause her death.

Defense attorneys established that no witnesses saw and no cameras captured Rivas Hernandez entering the house or Burke being at the house in the time frame prosecutors say she was killed.

The defense showed several other texts from Rivas Hernandez threatening him about their relationship, and saying she would go to Burke’s mother, talk to his friends and “leak” information about them.

Under questioning from defense attorney Blair Berk, Farrell said he saw no indication that she ever threatened to go to police or pursue any legal action against him.

The defense also established that she had asked seven times to come to see him in the days before her death, and he agreed only after she demanded it.

Farrell also said under questioning from Berk that the parents of both Burke and Rivas Hernandez knew about their relationship, that he had attended church with members of her family and that her parents had given their consent to go to London with him for a week.

The detective also agreed that Rivas Hernandez in her earliest conversations with Burke when he was 17 and she was 11, she had told him she was 16, and at other times said in messages she was 18.

After her phone went silent, Burke sent her several other messages that night asking where she was, and expressing concern. Prosecutors allege those messages were sent as cover after he had killed her.

Both sides finished their questioning of Farrell, the hearing’s final witness, and were preparing for closing arguments before Olmedo makes her decision.

Prosecutors allege Burke dismembered the body in his garage. A police analyst testified earlier in the hearing that samples pulled from apparent blood stains there .

Her body was found in a Tesla registered to him nearly five months later.

On his first day on the stand Friday, Farrell recounted dozens of sexually explicit photos of Burke and Rivas Hernandez and years of text messages that described the same things, along with conversations that indicated she had gotten an abortion in 2024 at 13 after he got her pregnant.

Prosecutors showed some of the less graphic photos from his phone, which showed the two of them kissing and showed she had a tattoo of “David” on a finger, one of two that had been cut off when her body was found.

Farrell described the photos that could not be shown in court, material so graphic that it left Rivas Hernandez’s mother in tears and prompted both parents to leave the courtroom on Friday. They were back in court Monday.

(pronounced “David”) became an online musical phenomenon as a teen with a blend of indie rock, R&B and lo-fi pop. He had huge followings on TikTok, Soundcloud and Spotify, where his top songs, including his 2022 breakthrough “Romantic Homicide,” have more than a billion plays.

In 2024 he played the Coachella music festival and released his first full-length album, “Withered,” two days after when authorities say Rivas Hernandez was killed.

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1. Layne Riggs, 715 (5).

2. Kaden Honeycutt, 616 (1).

3. Chandler Smith, 563 (2).

4. Christian Eckes, 497 (0).

5. Giovanni Ruggiero, 491 (0).

6. Ty Majeski, 446 (0).

7. Ben Rhodes, 408 (0).

8. Grant Enfinger, 391 (1).

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1. Justin Allgaier, 6.

2. Corey Day, 2.

2. Austin Hill, 2.

2. Kyle Larson, 2.

2. Shane Van Gisbergen, 2.

2. Connor Zilisch, 2.

7. Ross Chastain, 1.

7. Sheldon Creed, 1.

7. Taylor Gray, 1.

7. Brandon Jones, 1.

7. Carson Kvapil, 1.

7. William Sawalich, 1.

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1. Tyler Reddick, 5.

2. Denny Hamlin, 4.

3. Ryan Blaney, 2.

3. Chase Elliott, 2.

3. Corey Heim, 2.

3. Shane Van Gisbergen, 2.

7. Chase Briscoe, 1.

7. Ty Gibbs, 1.

7. Carson Hocevar, 1.

7. Joey Logano, 1.

7. Daniel SuĂĄrez, 1.

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Trump has Thune to scrap the legislative filibuster, which effectively sets a 60-vote threshold for most legislation in the 100-member Senate, or find another workaround to pass the voting bill, known as the SAVE America Act. But Republicans hold only a 53-47 majority, and Thune has consistently said they don’t have the votes to pass the bill or change the rules to get around the filibuster.

“John Thune should not allow the United States Senate to ‘leave town’ until it passes The Save America Act or, far better still, TERMINATES THE FILIBUSTER,” Trump wrote on social media.

He later insisted to reporters Monday that he has a good relationship with the Senate majority leader but said Thune has “got to get his job done.”

It’s the latest escalation in a monthslong pressure campaign by Trump and others in the GOP base to pass the SAVE Act ahead of the midterms. A small but vocal group of Republican senators has also increasingly pressed Thune to find a way forward.

House Republicans have also attempted to create another path for the legislation through the budget reconciliation process, which would allow grant money associated with voting rules to pass the Senate with a simple majority.

The House last a budget framework that included $10 billion for voting-related changes aligned with the SAVE America Act. But Thune has said Republicans don’t currently have the votes for that approach, either.

Trump’s pressure comes during an important period

The fight threatens to complicate the Senate’s final legislative sprint before the August break, when Thune had hoped to focus on a long list of priorities that includes government funding, cryptocurrency legislation and sanctions on Russia. The August break, scheduled to start on Aug. 7, is a pivotal stretch for senators to return home and campaign ahead of the midterm elections.

Several Republican senators are facing competitive races, including Maine Sen. Susan Collins, Ohio Sen. Jon Husted and Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan. Republicans currently hold a 53-47 Senate majority. Republicans are confronting broader political headwinds as well, including an unpopular war in Iran, and costs that remain high for voters.

Thune has enjoyed broad support from his GOP conference all year as he’s pushed back on Trump’s demands. He previously kept the SAVE Act on the Senate floor for weeks in an effort to build additional support, but was unable to secure the votes needed to advance it.

Utah Sen. Mike Lee, who has led the push for the bill in the Senate, escalated his pressure late last week, warning that how Republicans handle the SAVE America Act “could impact not only the November midterm elections, but also the Senate GOP leadership elections.”

“Leaders must lead. And if they don’t, they’re not leaders,” Lee wrote on social media Friday.

Frustrated by the pressure when he doesn’t have a route to pass the bill, Thune has urged Trump, Lee and others to help him find the votes. Trump on Friday said he’d “certainly be willing” to help call senators.

Asked last week if Trump is frustrated with Thune, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that “his patience is running out.” But Trump told reporters on Air Force Once Monday while traveling to an event in Michigan, that he hasn’t “even thought” about potential replacements for Thune.

The late-summer dispute echoes a similar fight before last year’s August recess, when Trump pressed Thune to keep senators in Washington to clear a backlog of his nominees. The Senate ultimately left town without a deal after negotiations with Democrats collapsed.

The SAVE America Act would create new national rules

The SAVE America Act, which stands for , would require Americans to prove they are citizens when they register to vote, mostly through a valid U.S. passport or birth certificate. It would also require a valid photo identification before voters can cast ballots, which some states already demand.

Voting experts have said the bill could disenfranchise some 20 million American voters who don’t have birth certificates or other documents readily available.

Trump has made it his legislative priority in 2026, saying it would “guarantee the midterms” and falsely claimed that election cheating is “rampant.” He previously declined to sign any other legislation until it was passed.

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On a visit to a coordination center for the massive firefighting effort in southwest France, Macron heard how the blaze raging since last week has been wildly unpredictable, transforming at times into a self-feeding fire storm as it burned through an area four times the size of Paris and forced 220,000 people to flee their homes.

“We’re facing a completely unprecedented fire,” Macron said, describing the situation as France’s worst fire-related crisis since World War II.

He praised firefighting teams who stopped the inferno’s progression Monday after successive days of spreading flames. But with woodlands still smoldering, he cautioned that the battle isn’t yet won.

“The weeks ahead will be hard,” he said.

With thousands of firefighters on the ground and rotations of water- and , it became a race against time Monday before an expected heat wave that could make fighting flames more difficult. The national weather service forecast temperatures above 35 C (95 F) in the southwest on Tuesday and likely higher on Wednesday.

Regional authorities said the situation overnight to Monday had remained “globally stable” — a change from previous days when officials said flames had crept to within 15 kilometers (10 miles) of the outskirts of Bordeaux, a historic city of 268,000 people, and generated with lightning bolts that ignited more blazes.

No new evacuations were announced Monday. But with France about to enter its peak August tourist season, authorities for the Gironde region around Bordeaux worked to keep vacationers away, banning holiday camps for children and for people with disabilities.

Fire crews racing against feared next heat wave

Crews using earth movers tore up strips of forest and scrubland to create barren spaces, intended to stop fires from spreading. Farmers were keeping fire crews supplied with water, transporting it to them in tanks.

Around a dozen countries have provided planes, helicopters, firefighters and other assistance to both France and Spain, which is also fighting unprecedented blazes. All told, fires in the two countries have forced more than 330,000 people to flee.

, wildfires have burned out of control around Madrid and in the Valencia region. Authorities and confined 30,000 others to their homes.

In both Spain and France, the exceptional scale of the fires — fueled by heat waves that hit especially hard and early this year, making forests and scrubland tinder-dry — are driving calls for stronger action against climate change.

“What we are experiencing is not a series of isolated incidents. It is the consequence of a climate emergency that is making wildfires even more violent, heat waves more frequent,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said.

A fire raging in hilly, rural terrain in , has become Spain’s largest on record, scorching 500 square kilometers (193 square miles), the government said. That’s five times the size of Barcelona.

“Look at how the valley is burned. Look at the houses, the people,” said David Gonzalez, a 48-year-old gardener who used his van to run supplies to firefighters in Ávila.

“We are feeling lot of anger and helplessness. It’s something inhuman,” he said.

Fires have burned 1,530 square kilometers (590 square miles) this year in Spain — six times the area scorched by blazes in the first half of 2025, said Sara Aagesen, the ecology minister.

The minister said that another heat wave forecast from Tuesday — which would be Spain’s fourth so far this year — could ratchet up the fire danger. Spain’s weather agency forecast temperatures above 40 C (104 F).

Water-dropping planes combat fire in Italy

A wildfire driven by strong winds broke out on Sunday afternoon near Peschici, in Italy’s southern Puglia region, burning pine forest and scrub and forcing the evacuation of about 300 tourists from beaches and campgrounds, authorities said.

The Coast Guard evacuated tourists by sea to nearby Vieste, where authorities opened temporary shelters.

Three Canadair water-bombing planes and fire crews on the ground continued Monday to battle the blaze, which revived memories of devastating wildfires that hit the same coastal area in 2007.

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Leicester reported from Paris. Associated Press writers Joseph Wilson in Barcelona, Iain Sullivan in El Tiemblo, Spain, and Giada Zampano in Rome contributed.

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Kristopher and Amanda Karolkiewicz and their six children, aged 5 to 15, died Friday in their home in Grand Haven Township, on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan. Authorities were summoned for a fire and then discovered the bodies.

The Ottawa County Sheriff’s Department said in a release Monday that autopsies determined all the family members died of gunshot wounds, and that Kristopher Karolkiewicz took his own life.

“The investigation shows that this was a murder-suicide,” Capt. Jacob Sparks wrote.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988.

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The fire appears to have been set intentionally in multiple parts of the home after the killings, but officials still are investigating the origin point, Sparks said. The family’s pets perished in the blaze.

Messages seeking comment were sent Monday to the couple’s relatives.

Kris Karolkiewicz was 47; his wife, who went by Mandy, was 39.

The couple met at work at a beverage company in 2008 and began dating that summer, according to a parenting-oriented blog that Mandy Karolkiewicz kept over a decade ago.

Their first child was born on April 25, 2011, which she hailed as “the best day of my life (so far).” Two more sons followed over the next four years, as she shifted from a banking job to a part-time position at a local insurance agency and later stopped working outside the home. The couple was planning to adopt more children at the time.

The blog frequently expressed her Christian faith, her joy in the family and her love and appreciation for her husband and his parenting. “My kids have that actual example of a selfless, Christ-like father,” she wrote in 2015.

Kris Karolkiewicz, too, hailed their life together: “I’m a very lucky guy,” he wrote in a 2019 Facebook post ahead of their 10th anniversary.

Kris Karolkiewicz was a vice president of sales and marketing for the American Heart Association from September 2023 to earlier this month, when his employment ended, an organization spokesperson said. The association did not release further details, saying it does not comment on personnel matters. While with the AHA, he worked remotely for a division responsible for CPR and first aid training and products, it said.

Recently, Mandy Karolkiewicz was a substitute teacher at an elementary school, earning praise for going “above and beyond for students, especially when they’re having a hard day, responding with empathy, patience, and care,” as the local school district put it in a Facebook post in January. A message seeking comment was sent Monday to the Grand Haven Area Public Schools system, which — without identifying anyone — exhorted the public in a post Friday to “avoid speculation” about the deaths.

Although her blog ended in 2016, Mandy Karolkiewicz continued sharing updates on her family and activities in TikTok videos, including clips of a trip to China earlier this month with two of her children.

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Peltz reported from New York and Collins from Hartford, Conn.

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Steele was placed on administrative leave after informing the team following the arrest, according to a person with knowledge of the situation. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Monday because the team was not commenting on the matter.

The person said offensive assistant Wes Welker assumed Steele’s responsibilities during minicamp. Coach Dan Quinn is expected to address the situation at his camp-opening news conference on Tuesday.

Steele, 48, had just been hired by Washington after spending the previous three NFL seasons with Arizona.

According to court records, Steele was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of driving while under the influence and a civil violation of refusing a blood/breathalyzer test on June 7. A message left for his attorney seeking comment was not immediately returned.

Steele played 18 NFL games with the Green Bay Packers in 2004 and ’05 before going into coaching.

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AP NFL:

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U.S. Magistrate Lauren Louis set a detention hearing for Aug. 13 to determine whether the Tates should stay in jail or be released during what could be a monthslong extradition process.

The Tates weren’t in court Monday or required to be there and have remained in jail since two days after .

The Tates promote wealth, male dominance and misogyny through their social media empire and are among the world’s most polarizing internet personalities. The former professional kickboxers, who have dual U.S. and U.K. citizenship, have millions of social media followers and are vocal supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump.

The White House has said the brothers shouldn’t expect any help from the president. Asked Thursday whether the White House would intervene in the extradition process, press secretary Karoline Leavitt flatly rejected the idea.

The Tates’ attorney, Joseph McBride, said after last week’s hearing that they should remain in the U.S.

“We are of course objecting to extradition because Andrew and Tristan are innocent,” McBride said. “They’ve never done nothing wrong. They shouldn’t be extradited for crimes they did not commit.”

McBride said the extradition attempt is politically motivated and suggested the case involved former British Prime Minister decision to step down, though he provided no details.

Prosecutors in Britain said the new charges relate to four new accusers and were brought after authorities received evidence from police in Bedfordshire, in southeastern England. The allegations, which span from 2010 to 2017, include rape, assault, trafficking and offenses relating to “indecent images of a child and extreme pornography.”

McBride said none of the latest accusers have been identified.

The brothers with rape, bodily harm, human trafficking and controlling prostitution for gain relating to three other accusers in the U.K. between 2012 and 2015.

The new allegations are the latest in a long-running international legal saga involving the Tates that has spanned the U.S., Britain and Romania. The brothers have repeatedly denied wrongdoing.

The brothers moved to Romania in 2016 and were arrested there in 2022, accused of participating in schemes to lure women for sexual exploitation. They denied those allegations, and the Romanian case hasn’t gone forward because of legal and procedural problems.

Travel restrictions were lifted last year, and they flew to Florida.

Andrew Tate, 39, became known a decade ago when he was a contestant on the U.K. reality television show “Big Brother.” He was booted from the show when a video appeared to show him assaulting a woman.

He has amassed over 10 million followers on X but has been banned from other platforms, including YouTube, TikTok and Instagram, for violating hate speech guidelines. He has made widely condemned comments, such as saying women who are sexually assaulted should bear some responsibility for the attacks and sharing graphic descriptions of how he might attack women.

The Tate brothers have consistently denied allegations of abuse and human trafficking, claiming their violent and misogynistic statements have been taken out of context or were intended as jokes.

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Terms of the settlement were not made public.

“The recent resolution of this matter allows everyone to move forward, and I welcome that opportunity,” Agugua-Hamilton said in a statement provided to The Associated Press on Monday. “I am proud of my career, grateful to every player and coach whose path has crossed mine, and excited for what is to come next. My passion for coaching has always been less about wins and losses and more about making a positive difference in the lives of young people. That passion remains as strong as ever.”

Agugua-Hamilton on April 4, a week after she led the Cavaliers to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2000. She went 70-58, including a 29-42 mark in ACC play. Virginia became the first double-digit seed to reach the regional semifinals since 2022 and pulled off the upset of the tournament, on the road in double overtime in the second round.

They became the first First Four team to advance that far

“It was a privilege to coach the remarkable young women who wore the Virginia jersey,” Agugua-Hamilton said. “Thank you for your commitment, your resilience, and allowing me to be a part of your journey. The relationships we built and the memories we created will always hold a special place in my heart.”

The school did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Before coaching at Virginia, Agugua-Hamilton led Missouri State to a 74-15 record from 2020-22, which featured two NCAA Tournament appearances.

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This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.

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“Get back here, man,” James King said.

“We’re playing blues today,” Dawn Dozier added.

Walls wasn’t having it.

“When you’re over 100, you can hit from anywhere you want,” he told them.

Then, with a silky smooth swing from the forward white tees, he thwacked the ball down the right side of the fairway just short of the green on the 180-yard hole.

Not bad for a 103-year-old. Actually, pretty incredible.

A record 6.3 million Americans 65 and older played golf in 2025, the National Golf Foundation reported this month. The NGF does not track the number of centenarians, but there undoubtedly are few, if any, who play as well and as often as Walls.

Walls is fit and trim and looks 30 years younger. He has survived a heart attack, has had multiple heart surgeries and overcame a transient ischemic attack (mini stroke). He credited good genes — both of his parents lived into their late 90s — for his longevity, along with staying active.

The notion that he’s a freak of nature doesn’t register with him.

“I don’t feel 103. I don’t act 103,” he said. “To me it’s no big deal.”

Born in St. Marys, Kansas, in 1923, Walls moved to Omaha in 1947 after he served in World War II. He spent most of his working years owning and operating a janitorial service.

He retired at 74 and, with friends’ encouragement, took up golf. Steve Hogan, who was Nebraska’s first Black PGA professional, taught Walls how to play at what was then Miller Park. The two became close friends, and Walls honors Hogan’s memory by volunteering seven days a week at the course, which was renamed Steve Hogan Golf Course after his death in 2008.

Walls spends five or six hours riding around in his open-top cart with a bucket of seed-and-sand mix on the passenger side. He fills divots and repairs ball marks, picks up trash and fishes other golfers’ errant shots out of the lagoon with his ball retriever.

Always strapped on the back of the cart is his golf bag, because he never knows when the mood will strike to stop and play a hole or maybe work on his game.

Outside the clubhouse are a couple of training devices Walls made to help young players get a feel for the golf swing arc. He has worked with kids in the First Tee program and gives lessons to adults for $50 per hour. The course holds an annual tournament, the Bob Walls Invitational, to raise money for equipment for neighborhood kids.

When he gets home from the course each day, he often gets on his iPad and watches hours of training videos.

“When I visited him for his 101st birthday, I wasn’t even in the door and the first thing he said to me was that he was breaking down his whole game, changing this, changing that,” Dozier said. “He’s always working on his game.”

Walls has still got plenty of game. He regularly shoots in the low 30s on the par-3 Hogan course. In fact, the other day he shot 31 to win a match against course manager Mike Rice.

“The first time I beat him — and I haven’t beaten him very often — I had to have a hole-in-one to do it,” Rice said. “Who’d ever thought a 103-year-old gentleman could knock a ball 180 yards consistently every day and have enough energy and strength to do it?”

Walls spends the fall and winter in Phoenix and is on a course or practice range every day there, too.

“Golf is the first thing I think about when I wake up in the morning,” he said.

He fusses over his stance, swing plane and the direction his shoulders are pointing at his finish. Recently, he’s been working on getting more consistent with his lob wedge so he doesn’t have to rely so much on his sand wedge.

“He’s going to hit right down the middle and the next shot is going to be on the green,” King said. “He’s not going to do anything to hurt himself. Sweet and easy. That’s what I love about his game. And he practices, too. Every day he hits a few balls, and I know he does because I’m down here most every day. I love playing with him. I think he’s one of kind.”

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AP sports:

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Comey’s lawyers argue the government cannot prove the Instagram photo of seashells in the numerical arrangement of “86 47″ constituted a “true threat” against the Republican president, who fired Comey in 2017 and has publicly called for his prosecution. The slogan — which has long meant to “get rid of” or “eject” — has been featured on thousands of items sold online and regularly displayed at protests, defense lawyers wrote in court papers.

“But the government now singles out Mr. Comey to prosecute one of the President’s most prominent critics for publishing another person’s statement of political opposition,” his attorney’s wrote. “That attempt to suppress core political speech contravenes both the statutes at issue and the First Amendment.”

The seashells case against Comey was the second in months targeting the ex-FBI director, a long-running Trump foe whom the president over the years has called a “corrupt piece of garbage” and other pejorative names.

An earlier case in Virginia accusing Comey of lying to Congress after a judge concluded that the prosecutor who charged him and another Trump adversary, New York Attorney General Letitia James, was illegally appointed to the job.

More broadly, the case is part of a retribution campaign by the Trump administration Justice Department, which has initiated investigations across the country into individuals the president does not like. Comey has long drawn Trump’s ire for his role overseeing the early months of an investigation into whether Trump’s 2016 campaign had coordinated with Russia to sway the outcome of that year’s election.

The two-count indictment charges Comey with “knowingly and willfully” making a threat to “take the life of, and to inflict bodily harm upon” Trump and with transmitting a threat in interstate commerce. It does not provide evidence that Comey knowingly threatened Trump, especially since Comey has said the opposite, but suggested a “reasonable recipient who is familiar with the circumstances would interpret” the message as a threat.

Comey was interviewed last year over the post after Trump administration officials asserted that he was advocating the assassination of Trump, the 47th president. Comey deleted the post shortly after it was made, writing: “I didn’t realize some folks associate those numbers with violence” and “I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down.”

“Even if ‘86 47’ could implausibly be read to suggest violence, a reasonable observer would still understand Mr. Comey’s post as mere political hyperbole, not a true threat,” Comey’s lawyers wrote. “The Supreme Court has rejected threats prosecutions based on speech far more directly threatening than Mr. Comey’s seashells post here.”

The Justice Department has not elaborated on any evidence of intent the government has. But acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said earlier this year that prosecutors in every case prove intent with “witnesses, with documents, with the defendant himself to the extent it’s appropriate.”

“And that’s how we’ll prove intent in this case,” Blanche said in April, shortly after he was elevated to lead the department after Pam Bondi’s firing.

Trump, in a Fox News Channel interview last year, accused Comey of knowing “exactly what that meant.”

“A child knows what that meant,” Trump said. “If you’re the FBI director and you don’t know what that meant, that meant assassination. And it says it loud and clear.”

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Colt Gray, 16, to 55 counts, including murder, in the Sept. 4, 2024, shooting that also left several others wounded at the school about 45 miles (73 kilometers) northeast of Atlanta.

He entered the plea without having reached a plea deal with prosecutors. Murder carries a minimum sentence of life in prison, and it is up to Barrow County Superior Court Judge Nicholas Primm to decide whether he will have the possibility of parole after hearing testimony and considering evidence.

Teachers Richard “Ricky” Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53, and students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14, . Another teacher and eight more students were wounded, seven of them hit by gunfire.

Psychologist says Colt Gray had a ‘chaotic’ childhood

A forensic psychologist who evaluated Gray after the shooting at the request of the teen’s attorney testified that during their first meeting in May 2025, Gray asked if he could pull his arms inside his sweatshirt to wrap them around himself.

“I thought he was kind of an odd kid,” Kevin Richards said. The psychologist said he did four interviews with Gray for a total of about 15 hours and also spoke to Gray’s mother twice for a total of about three hours.

“It was pretty chaotic,” the psychologist said of Gray’s upbringing, noting that the family had financial problems and moved around a lot, so he wasn’t enrolled in school for long stretches. His parents used drugs and fought a lot, and Gray had a lonely and neglected childhood, Richards testified.

Colt Gray discussed school shootings online

Gray was paranoid, Richards said. He talked about fearing that teachers were plotting against him, and that people in public were whispering about him. The teen said he thought his home computer had been infiltrated, prompting him to keep changing usernames and destroying external storage devices, the psychologist said.

Richards said that while he believes Gray experienced paranoia and anxiety, he doubts that motivated the attack.

“I don’t think he was driven by hallucinations or delusions to do what he did. I think he planned it out,” Richards said.

Most of the teen’s social life was online, Richards said. He was a gamer but also became immersed in a community of young true crime enthusiasts who were particularly fascinated by mass shootings. Initially, Gray focused on , who killed 26 people at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, as well as , who killed 12 people in a Colorado movie theater. Richards said Gray was particularly interested in , the shooter in the 2018 massacre at Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

“He had just kind of disappeared into Discord and disappeared into the true crime community,” Richards said.

District Attorney Brad Smith showed Richards some of Gray’s online conversations on Discord, an online communication platform. They established that Gray would sometimes lie about his own mental health symptoms when talking to people online to establish common ground with them and get attention.

When asked by Smith if Gray studied and emulated school shooters, Richards responded that Gray was “kind of obsessed” with them.

In interviews with investigators, Gray lied about having called a suicide hotline right before the shooting, which Holmes had done, Smith said. He also told investigators he had damaged his computer the morning of the shooting and left it in the middle of his room, as Lanza had done. Smith called these “easter eggs” that Gray was planting to “gain fame and status” within the online community that fetishized those killings.

In an online conversation just days before the shooting, Gray mentioned Sept. 4. When the person he was chatting with asked what was happening that day, he wrote, “something i have for nik!” — an apparent reference to the Parkland shooter’s first name. He also noted that day was a Wednesday, just like the Parkland shooting.

The judge also heard from victims and the lead investigator

After Gray entered his plea Friday, the judge heard from family members of those killed and victims of the shooting. Most asked the judge to sentence Gray to life without the possibility of parole.

Prosecutors also played recordings of two interviews the lead investigator did with Gray, one that took place less than an hour after the shooting at the school and another that was done several hours later at the sheriff’s office.

A his father, Colin Gray, on charges including second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter. He is scheduled to be sentenced later this week. Prosecutors said he gave his son the assault-style rifle used to open fire at the school.

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