Riverdale actor Ryan Grantham gets life in prison for killing his mother.
Canadian actor Ryan Grantham has been sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to murdering his mother, Barbara Waite, in 2020.
The 24-year-old, who played Jeffery Augustine in teen drama Riverdale, was sentenced at British Columbia Supreme Court in Vancouver on Wednesday.
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Ryan Grantham Shot & Killed Video Link
He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, after having initially been charged with first-degree murder.
Prosecutors said he had also plotted to kill Canadian PM Justin Trudeau.
Grantham admitted to shooting his mother in the back of the head as she played piano in their home, north of Vancouver, the court heard.
In a video taken on his Go-Pro camera after the killing, the actor filmed his mother’s body while saying: “I shot her in the back of the head. In the moments after, she would have known it was me.”
Ryan Grantham Killed His Mother
After drinking beer and smoking marijuana for hours following the murder, he packed a car with three guns, ammunition and 12 Molotov cocktails he had made, as well as camping supplies and directions to Mr Trudeau’s Rideau Cottage residence.
He drove roughly 200 kilometres east to the town of Hope, before turning around and driving to a Vancouver police station, where he told an officer: “I killed my mother.”
The court also heard Grantham had considered committing an act of mass violence at Vancouver’s Lions Gate Bridge or at Simon Fraser University, where he had been a student, en route before turning his car around and handing himself in.
Actor Ryan Grantham has been sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to second-degree murder of his mother Barbara Waite in 2020.
Ryan Grantham Mother Autopsy
The 24-year-old actor, who was sentenced in Vancouver this week, will not be eligible for parole for 14 years, per the CBC. In the Canadian court system, second-degree murder carries an automatic life sentence.
The court learned in a June hearing that Grantham shot his 64-year-old mother in the back of the head while she played piano on March 31, 2020. In a video taken by the “Riverdale” actor, he confessed to the murder and showed his mother’s body.
The day after the killing, he loaded his car with three guns, ammunition, 12 Molotov cocktails and camping supplies with the intent of killing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. He instead decided to turn himself in to the Vancouver police