Ryan Grantham, a younger Canadian actor who appeared within the tv present “Riverdale,” has been sentenced to life in jail after admitting to killing his mom as a part of a broad scheme through which he stated he had deliberate to additionally kill Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and perform a mass taking pictures in British Columbia.
Grantham, 23, was declared eligible for parole after 14 years throughout sentencing proceedings on the Supreme Court docket of British Columbia on Wednesday, in accordance with prosectors and a lawyer for Grantham.
Grantham had pleaded responsible earlier this yr to second-degree homicide, which carries an automated sentence of life in jail. The primary situation on the sentencing was when he could be eligible for parole. Prosecutors had referred to as for a 17- to 18-year ready interval earlier than Grantham may apply for parole, Grantham’s lawyer had requested for a interval of 12 years, and a decide on Wednesday selected a quantity in between.
The court docket additionally imposed a lifetime firearm ban on Grantham, prosecutors stated.
Grantham has greater than 30 performing credit, beginning when he was a baby. He appeared within the 2010 film “Diary of a Wimpy Child,” through which he performed Rodney James, and in a number of different movies, together with “The Imaginarium of Physician Parnassus.” Most just lately he performed the character Jeffery in a 2019 episode of “Riverdale,” a darkish reimagining of the Archie Comics franchise on CW.
His lawyer, Chris Johnson, stated that Grantham had suffered from plenty of documented psychological well being challenges together with scientific melancholy and that, since getting into jail, he had “dedicated himself to making an attempt to rehabilitate himself.”
The crime occurred on March 31, 2020, when Grantham, then 21, shot his mom, Barbara Waite, behind her head as she performed piano of their house in Squamish, a city in British Columbia about 37 miles south of Whistler, Johnson stated. Grantham recorded a video shortly after that through which he confessed to the homicide after which left by automotive, Johnson stated. Grantham instructed the authorities that he initially had deliberate to kill the prime minister, however modified his thoughts and sooner or later determined he would perform a mass taking pictures, presumably at Simon Fraser College, the place he had been a pupil.
He didn’t perform both plan, and as an alternative turned himself in to the police on April 1, 2020, Johnson stated.
Grantham had rationalized that it was essential to kill his mom in order that she wouldn’t should cope with the fallout of the crimes he had deliberate to commit, Johnson stated.
Susan Beachy contributed analysis.