Riverdale star Ryan Grantham is jailed for LIFE for shooting his mom in the back of the head
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A former Riverdale actor who admitted to killing his mother in an attempt to save her from his plot to assassinate Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been sentenced to life in prison.
Ryan Grantham, 24, will not be able to appeal for parole for 14 years after pleading guilty to second-degree murder for fatally shooting his 64-year-old mother, Barbara Waite, while she was playing the piano in March 2020.
He then drove to Trudeau’s home with three rifles, ammunition and 12 Molotov cocktails in his car before turning himself in to authorities.
Under Canadian law, a second-degree murder charge automatically carries a life sentence β and all his lawyers could dispute was how long he would have to serve before being paroled.
They argued in June that Grantham should be eligible for parole after 12 years for admitting his guilt and expressing regret for his actions, while the federal government argued that he would have to serve 17 to 18 years before he was released. was eligible.
But on Wednesday CBC According to reports from Britain’s Supreme Court, Kathleen Ker, Kathleen Ker has ruled that he will serve only 14 years, as she viewed the actor’s downward spiral in the months leading up to the murder as a mitigating factor.
She noted that Grantham seemed genuinely sorry in his apologies, and sought psychiatric help in prison, where he received positive reviews about his behavior and progress.
Ker also called it a “saving grace” that Grantham had enough attachment to reality and understanding to decide not to commit mass murder or kill the Prime Minister.
Ryan Grantham, 24, was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 14 years
He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder charges for murdering his mother, 64-year-old Barbara Waite (pictured), while she was playing the piano on March 31, 2020
Prosecutors revealed in June that after Grantham shot Waite in the back of the head while paying for piano on March 31, 2020, he recorded video on a GoPro confessing to the murder and showing his mother’s lifeless body.
“I shot her in the back of the head,” he is said to have said on the tape. “She would have known it was me in the moments after.”
The actor then bought beer and weed, experimented with making Molotov cocktails and watched Netflix before covering his mother’s body with a sheet and going to bed.
The next morning, Grantham told authorities, he hung a rosary on Waite’s piano and arranged lighted candles around her body, before loading his car with three rifles, ammunition, a dozen Molotov cocktails, camping gear and directions to Trudeau’s Rideau Cottage in Ottawa.
He had planned to travel more than 50 hours to kill Trudeau, before changing his mind and considering committing “an act of mass violence” at Simon Fraser University, from which he had dropped out.
He turned to the Vancouver Police Department before harming anyone else and pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in March.
Authorities say he shot and killed Waite in an attempt to “save her” to see his assassination plot against Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, pictured on Thursday.
Prosecutors had called the murder a “breach of trust,” noting that Barbara (pictured right) loved and trusted her son.
Prosecutors said in the aftermath that Grantham fatally shot his mother “to save her” to watch his assassination plot against the Canadian prime minister unfold.
They presented two psychiatric evaluations that concluded that Grantham had committed the crime to protect her mother from further acts of violence that he intended to commit.
The evaluations concluded that months before the murder, Grantham exhibited cannabis use disorder, depression, self-loathing, and suicidal and homicidal tendencies.
Prosecutors pointed to a March newscast in which Grantham wrote, “I’m so sorry Mom, I’m so sorry Lisa…I hate myself.
“There’s a lot of media of mine… film and TV… hundreds of hours of mine that can be viewed and dissected… No one will understand.”
‘Mr. Grantham was trying to save his mother from something he was about to do,” prosecutor Michaela Donnelly said at the June hearing.
She described the murder as a “heartbreaking breach of trust.”
“Barbara Waite loved her son very much, was an excellent parent and she said she had no reason to be afraid of him,” she said.
Donnelly added that Grantham had many opportunities to change his mind.
Apparently, he loaded and discharged his gun several times on the day of the murder, and sat on the steps of his mansion for nearly 15 minutes, thinking about what to do β before finally returning and shooting his mother.
According to CBC, Grantham reportedly feared Waite would find out he had dropped out of classes at Simon Fraser University and was abusing marijuana.
Grantham is most famous for playing Jeffery Augustine in Riverdale. His character was written into the show as the hit-and-run killer of Luke Perry’s character, after Perry died of a stroke.
He has also had roles on the TV show Supernatural (pictured)
Waite’s body was found on April 1, 2020 by her daughter Lisa, who arrived after Waite failed to answer her calls and texts.
“How can I trust anyone if my only sibling chose to execute my mother when she turned her back on her,” Lisa Grantham said in court.
But Grantham expressed his grief in court in June.
βI cannot explain or justify my actions. I have no excuse,” he said at the time.
βIt hurts me to think about how much I’ve wasted my life.
“In the face of something so terrible, saying sorry seems so pointless,” he added. “But I’m sorry from every fiber of my being.”
Grantham is most famous for playing Jeffery Augustine in Riverdale. His character was written into the show as the hit-and-run killer of Luke Perry’s character, after Perry died of a stroke.
He has also had roles on the television show Supernatural, as well as in the films Diary of a Wimpy Kid and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.