British Columbia Supreme Court in Canada has sentenced Ryan Grantham to life imprisonment for killing his own mother and plotting to assassinate Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The question has arisen as to how soon will he be eligible for parole.
This was after the 24-year-old actor pleaded guilty to murdering his mother, Barbara Waite, in 2020. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, after having originally been charged with first-degree murder.
According to prosecutors, Grantham had also plotted to kill Canadian PM Justin Trudeau.
has been acting professionally since he was 9. He is best known for portraying Jeffery Augustine in the CW’s Riverdale. He also featured in TV series including Supernatural and Zombie, and the films Diary of a Wimpy Kid and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. He had stopped attending classes at the university just before he killed his mother.
Grantham lived in Vancouver in British Columbia, the western province of Canada. He went to Simon Fraser University.
Grantham had earlier told the court that he rehearsed the murder of his mother. He had shot his 64-year-old mother, Barbara Waite, in the back of the head as she played piano on 31 March, 2020. After killing his mother he made a 4-minute-long video, which was shown in the court during the hearing.
He had said, “I shot her in the back of the head. In the moments after, she would have known it was me.”
The following day, Grantham packed his car with three guns, ammunition, 12 Molotov cocktails, camping supplies and a map and drove towards the house of the Canadian prime minister in Ottawa.
Grantham has spent his life in police custody since his arrest in 2020. According to the police, he’s also been taking part in a mental health programme during his custody.
Grantham will be eligible for a parole only after spending first 14 years in jail.