Former Riverdale actor Ryan Grantham has been jailed for life after pleading guilty to murdering his mother in March 2020.
The disgraced actor, 24, pleaded guilty to charges of second-degree murder in March this year after admitting he shot his mum in the back of the head as she played piano in their townhouse in Vancouver.
CBC reports Grantham was handed a life sentence at British Columbia Supreme Court and he has no possibility of parole for the first 14 years. Court was shown a video taken on a GoPro camera a short time after the murder. In it, Grantham confessed to the murder and showed his mum's body.
The day after the murder took place on March 31, 2020, the former child actor is said to have covered the body with a sheet and hung a rosary from the piano while also lighting candles.
He is then said to have loaded his car with three guns, bullets and camping supplies as well as directions to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's property. However, the court heard how he turned around part way through his journey and instead had thoughts of committing a mass shooting at Simon Fraser University, where he was enrolled as a student.
Later that evening, he drove himself to the police station and handed himself in. It's alleged Grantham wrote about his plans to kill the politician in a diary and that he also later admitted his intentions to the police in a statement.
Justice Kathleen Ker, who handed him his sentence, called the case "tragic and heartbreaking" and called it a "saving grace" that Grantham had enough attachment to reality and psychological comprehension to choose against a further shooting spree.
In June, the actor, who also starred in Supernatural, iZombie and Diary of a Wimpy Kid addressed the court and gave an apology speech in which he said his mum didn't deserve her fate.
It was argued during the trial that Grantham had been struggling with anxiety, self-loathing and clinical depression, and had expressed a desire to commit suicide or violence against others in the months leading up to his mother’s murder.
