Actor Ryan Grantham, popular for roles in Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Riverdale, has been sentenced to life imprisonment for killing his mother.
Grantham pled guilty to the second-degree murder charge and will be eligible to apply for parole after 14 years.
In Canada, second-degree murders carry an automatic life sentence.
On March 31, 2020, Grantham shot his mother, Barbara Waite, in the back of the head as she played piano in their Squamish townhouse.
He planned the killing in advance and rehearsed his actions beforehand, considering the murder for about 15 minutes, according to prosecutors.
Grantham — who is an experienced shooter — also filmed a four-minute video on a GoPro camera in which he confessed to the crime and showed his mother’s body, which was witnessed in court.
The next day, 24-year-old Grantham also allegedly plotted an attempted assassination of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in which he packed his vehicle with guns, ammunition, a dozen Molotov cocktails, and a map to Trudeau’s family residence in Ottawa.
For some reason, he decided to stop en route and hand himself over to the police.
In delivering the sentence in B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver, Justice Kathleen Ker called the case tragic and heartbreaking, and said victim impact statements, especially from his sister, spoke to the “life-shattering” effects of the crime.
She summarized how Grantham was in a downward spiral in the months leading up to the matricide, spending an increasing amount of time smoking cannabis and watching violent videos on the dark web, while feeling isolated and consumed by suicidal and homicidal urges.
Ker said she considered Grantham’s mental health difficulties at the time of the murder a mitigating circumstance. She noted that Grantham was seeking psychiatric help in prison and receiving positive reviews about his behaviour and progress.
