Riverdale alum Ryan Grantham allegedly was plotting to kill Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau following his mother’s death.
Grantham, 24, detailed his plans to harm Trudeau, 50, in a journal and a police statement, prosecutors in British Columbia argued on Tuesday, June 14. According to CBC News, the former actor attempted to act on his thoughts after he allegedly shot his mom, Barbara Waite, earlier this year.
In March, Grantham pleaded guilty to second-degree murder when his mother was found dead in their townhouse two years prior. During his sentencing, it was reported that Grantham obtained three guns, ammunition, Molotov cocktails, camping supplies and a map for the area where Trudeau and his family are located.
Per CBC, who was at the virtual hearing, Grantham didn’t go to Rideau Cottage in Ottawa and instead changed his mind and headed to his school. He ended up turning himself in to the Vancouver police shortly after his mother’s death.
The Canada native apologized for his actions during his sentencing. “I cannot explain or justify my actions. I have no excuse,” Grantham read a statement on Wednesday, June 15. “It hurts me to think about how badly I’ve wasted my life.” He added, “In the face of something so horrible, saying sorry seems so pointless. But from every fiber of my being, I am sorry.”
Grantham’s attorney Chris Johnson argued that mental illness affected the way his client was acting ahead of the murder. “At the time of the offense, this killing was not done out of hatred or animosity,” Johnson said. “It was done in Mr. Grantham’s disordered thinking, to prevent his mother from seeing what he thought he was about to do.”
In response to Johnson’s claims that Grantham killed his mother to help her, prosecutor Michaela Donnelly questioned the intentions. “Mr. Grantham was seeking to save his mother from something he was going to do. That is something different than altruism,” Donnelly said on Wednesday. “Barbara Waite loved her son very much, was an excellent parent and in her mind had no reason to fear him.”
In Canada, a second-degree murder charge results in an automatic life sentence. Grantham’s lawyer requested for 12 years of parole ineligibility while the prosecution asked for 17 to 18 years.
Ahead of his legal issues, Grantham appeared in several TV and film productions. In 2019, he was cast in Riverdale in the role of Jeffery Augustine, who killed Fred Andrews (Luke Perry) in a hit-and-run incident. Grantham also booked jobs on Supernatural, iZombie, Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Becoming Redwood.
