A Hollywood star has been sentenced to life in prison for murdering his own mother by shooting her in the back of the head.
Ryan Grantham, a Canadian actor who appeared in “Riverdale,” “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” and “Supernatural,” pleaded guilty to the second-degree murder of his mom, Barbara Waite.
The actor was 21 at the time of the murder.
Prosecutors described a gruesome scene during the slaying.
Grantham shot his mother in the back of her head with a .22 rifle while she was playing the piano.
He recorded a video where he confessed to the murder and showed Barbara Waite’s body to the camera.
“I shot her in the back of the head,” he says in the video.
“In the moments after, she would have known it was me.”
Grantham also confessed to the killing in his diary, where he wrote an appology to his mother and sister.
“I’m so sorry mom, I’m so sorry Lisa,” he wrote in his diary.
“I hate myself,” he continued.
“There’s a lot of media of me out there, film and TV, hundreds of hours of me that can be viewed and dissected.
“No one will understand”
According to Variety:
“The following day, he covered the body with a sheet, surrounded it with lit candles, and hung a rosary from the piano, before driving east to Ottawa in a car packed with guns, ammunition, and Molotov cocktails.
“His intention was to kill Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
“Instead, he drove to Hope, B.C., with thoughts of committing a mass shooting at Simon Fraser University — where he was enrolled — or on the Lions Gate Bridge.
“Ultimately he decided to turn himself in at the Vancouver Police Department building in East Vancouver.”
His sister Lisa Grantham told the court:
“How can I trust anybody when my only sibling chose to execute my mom when her back was turned.”
Grantham began acting at age 9, with credits including “iZombie,” “Unspeakable,” “Way of the Wicked,” “Riese” and “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.”
‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’ and ‘Riverdale’ actor Ryan Grantham pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, admitting that he shot his mother in the back of her head while playing piano in their townhouse pic.twitter.com/vxgfFCLuyM
— No Jumper (@nojumper) September 23, 2022
BREAKING: Diary of a Wimpy Kid actor sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his mother 😳‼️ pic.twitter.com/qJzHoxxzme
— RapTV (@Rap) September 23, 2022
From CBC:
According to the admission of facts read out by the Crown, Grantham shot his mother Barbara Waite, 64, in the back of the head while she played piano in their Squamish townhouse on March 31, 2020.
The next day, while her body still lay in the pool of blood, Grantham loaded his car with three guns, ammunition, 12 Molotov cocktails, camping supplies and a printed Google map with directions to Rideau Cottage in Ottawa.
Grantham mentioned killing Trudeau in both his statement to police and in excerpts from his private journal that were read out in court.
He set out driving east, but only got as far as Hope, B.C., before turning around amidst thoughts of committing mass violence and killing people on Vancouver’s Lions Gate Bridge or at Simon Fraser University, where he was a student.
Later that night he drove to Vancouver police headquarters in East Vancouver to turn himself in and approached an officer sitting in a police car. He told the officer, “I killed my mother.”
