Ryan Grantham of Riverdale Gets Life in Prison for Killing His Mother
According to a statement on September 22 from BC Prosecution Services, the 24-year-old actor from the CW series Riverdale was sentenced to life in prison with the chance of parole in 14 years. At his sentencing on September 20th, the court also ordered Grantham to be permanently disarmed. According to the statement, if convicted of second-degree murder in British Columbia, the offender must serve a life sentence in prison and must also surrender all firearms.
Ryan’s attorney Chris Johnson stated after his sentencing that Grantham has “worked really hard to turn his life around” since his arrest.
According to a statement released by Johnson, the defendant “has received a lot of psychological assistance and he has struggled with what he is done and facing that, but he hopes to be able to dedicate the rest of his life to making amends.”
According to a statement acquired by E! News in June from Dan McLaughlin of the BC Prosecution Service, he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in March for the death of his mother.
Prosecutors claimed that Grantham shot his mother, Barbara Waite, in the back of the head while she played the piano in their home in March of 2020, according to CBC News reporter Karin Larsen, who was practically present at the sentencing hearing in June. Grantham, then 21 years old, admitted to the crime in a video in which he also videotaped his mother’s body.
According to the CBC, Grantham loaded his car the next day with guns, bullets and Molotov cocktails and planned to travel to Rideau Cottage in Ottawa and kill Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Grantham, however, decided to circle around and conduct mass violence at either the Lions Gate Bridge in Vancouver or his alma mater, Simon Fraser University.
Instead of following through, Grantham went to the Vancouver police station that night and confessed to an officer, “I killed my mother.”
In June, Crown attorney Michaela Donnelly cited two medical reports to argue that before killing his mother, Grantham was experiencing violent impulses and clinical depression.
Grantham gave a statement of self-reflection to the court on the third and last day of his hearing in June.
“It hurts me to think about how badly I’ve wasted my life,” he remarked. “In the face of something so horrible, saying sorry seems so pointless. But from every fiber of my being, I am sorry.”
In addition, he has made cameo appearances in the movies Becoming Redwood and Diary of a Wimpy Kid.