The by-the-book second-degree murder sentence was imposed by British Columbia Supreme Court Justice Kathleen Ker on Sept. 21 in Vancouver. Since the sentence was already uncontested under Canadian provincial law, the only real wild card was how long Grantham’s alleged guilty plea would have to wait before the 24-year-old could apply for parole today. Awards nominee Leo Grantham turned himself into police immediately after shooting his 64-year-old mother Barbara Waite in the back of the head on March 31, 2020, at the family’s Squamish home, just north of Vancouver. A charge of second-degree murder in BC comes with no parole of between 10 and 25 years. In that context, prosecutors had recommended at a sentencing hearing earlier this year that Grantham be ineligible for parole for up to 18 years. The former actor’s legal team had suggested 12 years as a fair consequence. It is clear that Judge Kerr met them in the middle in her ruling this week. Originally charged with first-degree murder, Grantham has been in custody for the past two and a half years, Vancouver law enforcement officials confirmed to Deadline today. Participating in a mental health program since his arrest, Grantham is in the process of preparing to be transferred to a more permanent facility, sources say. With around 30 titles on his resume, Grantham notably played Jeffrey Augustine in the fourth season of the CW soap Riverdale in 2019. While appearing briefly, the character had a central role in the show based on the Archie comics. It was Jeffrey Augustine who killed the late Luke Perry who played Fred Andrews on the series in a hit that changed almost everything about the show. Beginning his career in 2007, Grantham also appeared in the 2010 film Diary of a Wimpy Kid, as well as cameos in Supernatural, iZombie and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. It was later revealed in court that after his mother’s murder, Grantham took a video of the body and confessed to the murder on camera. A day later, after carefully arranging the body in a semi-religious tent, Grantham hit the road. With ever-changing intentions, at one point he was going to try to kill Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as he also wrote in a diary entered into evidence. Grantham also considered committing a mass shooting at Vancouver’s Simon Fraser University or the iconic Lions Gate Bridge. Fortunately, none of that happened and Grantham went to the East Vancouver police station and turned himself in. “I killed my mother,” he allegedly bluntly told police at the station reception. In March this year, the multi-talented actor expressed regret for what he had done. “In the face of something so horrific, saying sorry seems so pointless,” Grantham told the Vancouver court and Judge Kerr, reading from a sheet of paper. “But with every fiber of my being, I am sorry.”
