Actor Ryan Grantham has been sentenced to life in prison for killing his mother.
On Sept. 22, E! News received a statement from BC Prosecution Services reporting that Grantham was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole in 14 years.
During his sentencing on Sept. 20, the court also gave Grantham a lifetime firearm ban.
A life sentence and lifetime firearm ban is mandatory in British Columbia for second-degree murder, according to the statement.
After his sentencing, Grantham’s lawyer Chris Johnson told E! News that he has “worked really hard to turn his life around” since his arrest.
“He’s received a lot of psychological assistance and he has struggled with what he’s done and facing that, but he hopes to be able to dedicate the rest of his life to making amends,” Johnson said of the 24-year-old actor.
In March, Grantham plead guilty to second-degree murder in the involvement of his mother, Barbara Waite’s death, according to a statement received by E! News from Dan McLaughlin of the BC Prosecution Service.
In June, Karin Larsen, a reporter for CBC News attended the sentencing hearing virtually. She reported that in March 2020, Grantham shot his mother in the back of the head while she was playing piano at home.
After murdering her, the then-21-year-old filmed himself confessing to the crime and also filmed her dead body.
Grantham’s motive for killing his mother stemmed from him not wanting her to see the acts of violence he intended on committing.
“Mr. Grantham was seeking to save his mother from something he was going to do … That is something different than altruism,” Crown prosecutor Michaela Donnelly said.
She called Grantham’s act a “heartbreaking breach of trust.”
“Barbara Waite loved her son very much, was an excellent parent and in her mind had no reason to fear him,” she added.
Donnelly also said that months leading up to his mother’s murder, Grantham was battling clinical depression for an intense period of time.
The day after the murder, Grantham packed his car with multiple guns, ammunition, and 12 gasoline bombs, a map, and camping supplies. He planned to kill Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau next.
However, in a change of plans, he then decided to go a different route to Vancouver’s Lions Gate Bridge or Simon Fraser University, where he attended school, to commit mass violence, per E! News.
Grantham did not go through with it and instead went to the Vancouver police later that night and confessed to an officer that he killed his mother.
On the final day of his hearing, in June, Grantham made a statement expressing his remorse.
“It hurts me to think about how badly I’ve wasted my life. In the face of something so horrible, saying sorry seems so pointless. But from every fiber of my being, I am sorry,” he said.
Grantham has starred in movies such as “Diary of Wimpy Kid” and the television show “Riverdale.”
