Ryan Grantham, a Canadian actor whose credits include ‘Riverdale’, ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’ and ‘Supernatural’, was sentenced to life in prison with a 14-year parole ineligibility for second-degree murder of his mother, CBC reports.
In March 2020, the actor shot his mother, Barbara Waite, in the back of the head with a .22 rifle while she was playing the piano at their home in Squamish, British Columbia. As told in court, Grantham then took a GoPro video shortly after the murder, in which he confesses to killing his mother and shows her body. The next day, he covered the body with a sheet, surrounded it with lighted candles and hung a rosary on the piano, before driving to Ottawa in a car stuffed with guns, ammunition and Molotov cocktails. . His intention was to kill Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Instead, he traveled to Hope, British Columbia, with plans to carry out a mass shooting at Simon Fraser University – where he was enrolled – or at the Lions Gate Bridge. Eventually, he decided to go to the Vancouver Police Department building in East Vancouver.
Grantham’s sister gave a victim impact statement at the trial, with BC Supreme Court Justice Kathleen Ker calling the case “tragic” and “heartbreaking”. The judge said it was a “saving grace” that Grantham chose to turn himself in and not commit mass murder.
Since second-degree murder carries an automatic life sentence in Canada, the question was how long Grantham should wait before seeking parole.
Grantham started performing at the age of 9, with credits such as “iZombie”, “Unspeakable”, “Way of the Wicked”, “Riese”, and “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus”.