In 2020, Ryan Grantham killed his mother in cold blood by shooting her in the head. The then 21-year-old actor, who suffered from depression, was afraid that she would see him through.
Ryan Grantham is only 24 years old but will spend the rest of his life in prison. The young actor, known in particular for having played a small role in the series Riverdale, was sentenced to life imprisonment for having murdered his mother and plotting to kill Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The Supreme Court of British Columbia sentenced Ryan Grantham on September 21, to life in prison without the possibility of parole, at least for the first 14 years of his detention. Last March, the Diary of a Wimpy Kid actor pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. He had killed his 64-year-old mother, Barbara Anne Waite, by shooting her in the back of the head while she was playing the piano in March 2020.
This particularly barbaric murder, Ryan Grantham had repeated and filmed it with a portable camera. In addition to killing his mother, the 24-year-old allegedly plotted to kill Justin Trudeau at his Rideau Cottage residence. The day after his gesture, Ryan Grantham had placed candles around his mother’s body before heading to the residence of the Canadian Prime Minister. In his bag, he had carried three rifles, ammunition, camping supplies and 12 Molotov cocktails. After covering 200 kilometres, he decided to turn around. At the same time, Ryan Grantham considered carrying out an attack on the Lions Gate Bridge in Vancouver or on Simon Fraser University, his former school.
Ryan Grantham suffers from depression
Instead, the 24-year-old went to a Vancouver police station where he confessed to his crime. “I killed my mother”, he explained to the police. During the actor’s trial, his defense claimed he suffered from mental health issues, including anxiety and depression. According to two psychiatric reports, Ryan Grantham suffered from a disorder related to his excessive cannabis use. After killing his mother, the actor would have spent hours smoking drugs and drinking beer while preparing the Molotov cocktails he wanted to throw at Justin Trudeau’s residence. According to his lawyers, Ryan Grantham had planned to kill himself in the months leading up to his mother’s death.
The actor had also described his murderous plans in a diary before carrying them out. An experienced firearms user and member of a shooting club, he had purchased the .22 caliber shotgun he had used to kill his mother months before that tragic day. As for the motive for the murder, it is surreal. Prosecutor Michaela Donnelly has revealed that the actor feared his mother… would find out about his marijuana use and poor school performance. Police also raised the possibility that Ryan Grantham had killed his mother so that she would not suffer the consequences if he managed to kill Justin Trudeau. It was his sister, worried about not having heard from their mother, who found his body..
“He’s a pretty fragile person”
“It breaks my heart, she fought so hard…Then was murdered by her own son…She was vulnerable and Ryan gave her no chance to defend herself. It hurts me to know that he was a danger to his life”, said the young woman who spoke during her brother’s trial. The former child star appeared in an episode of the Riverdale series in 2019, and also appeared in the fantasy drama Supernatural, as well as the Diary of a Wimpy Kid, released in 2010. Ryan Grantham has been in detention for two years and a half and participates in a mental health program since his arrest. “I think he anticipated this pain, said his lawyer, Chris Johnson. I think he’s pretty worried about spending his life in prison. He’s a pretty fragile person, and going into the prison system, I’m sure, is a daunting and scary thought for him.”