Ryan Grantham, a Canadian actor whose credits include “Riverdale,” “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” and “Supernatural,” was sentenced to life in prison with 14 years suspended for the second-degree murder of his mother, the CBC reports. .
In March 2020, the actor shot his mother, Barbara Waite, in the back of the head with a .22 rifle as she played the piano at their home in Squamish, British Columbia. Grantham shot a GoPro video shortly after the murder in which he confesses to killing his mother and points to her body, the court heard. The next day, he covered the body with a sheet, surrounded it with lit candles and hung a rosary from the piano, before driving east to Ottawa in a car full of guns, ammunition and Molotov cocktails. His intention was to kill Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Instead, he drove to Hope, B.C., thinking of committing a mass shooting at Simon Fraser University — where he enrolled — or the Lions Gate Bridge. He eventually decided to turn himself in at the Vancouver Police Department building in East Vancouver.
Grantham’s sister delivered a victim impact statement at the trial, with British Columbia Supreme Court Justice Kathleen Kerr calling the case “tragic” and “heartbreaking.” The judge said it was a “saving grace” that Grantham chose to hand himself in and not commit mass murder.
Since second-degree murder carries an automatic life sentence in Canada, the question was how long Grantham would have to wait before applying for parole.
Grantham began acting at the age of 9, with titles such as ‘iZombie’, ‘Uspeakable’, ‘Way of the Wicked’, ‘Riese’ and ‘The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus’.
