We reported earlier this year that Riverdale actor Ryan Grantham pleaded guilty to second-degree murder after killing his mother. The actor was initially charged with first-degree murder. Now it’s been revealed that Grantham has been sentenced to life in prison for his act of matricide. Furthermore, he will not be eligible for parole for at least 14 years from now.
The murder of his mother, Barbara Waite, occurred in March of 2020. It’s worth noting that after he killed his mother, who he shot in the back of her head while she played piano, he also had additional murders in mind. Specifically, he had plans to assassinate Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. This resulted in the actor driving with a car loaded with guns, ammo, and even Molotov cocktails. He ultimately turned himself in, however, to the Vancouver Police Department.
As further noted via Deadline, Grantham has been “participating in a mental health program since his arrest,” and he is now “in the process of being readied for transfer to a more permanent facility.” Because the crime occurred in March 2020, he has now been in custody for two and a half years already.
They specifically noted that, after his mother was killed, “Grantham took video of the body and confessed to the killing on-camera. A day later, after carefully arranging the body in a semi-religious scene, Grantham hit the road. With ever-changing intent, he at one point was going to try to kill Canadian PM Justin Trudeau, as he also wrote in a journal entered as evidence.” They also noted that he considered other crimes, such as “a mass shooting at Vancouver’s Simon Fraser University or on the iconic Lions Gate Bridge.”
While Ryan Grantham only appeared in one episode of Riverdale, he also had appearances in several other projects. This included episodes of the horror series Supernatural in addition to the 2010 movie Diary of a Wimpy Kid.