Ryan Grantham, a US actor who played the role of Jefferey Augustine in Riverdale has admitted to killing his mother, Barbara Waite, in 2020 and was given a life term in prison. The 24-year-old was given a sentence on Wednesday at the British Columbia Supreme Court in Vancouver. After being accused of first-degree murder at first, he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. He was also alleged of planning to assassinate Justin Trudeau, the prime minister of Canada.
The court heard that Grantham acknowledged shooting his mother in the back of the head while she was practicing the piano at their house, located north of Vancouver.
After the murder, the Riverdale actor recorded a Go-Pro video of his mother’s body while narrating: “I shot her in the back of the head. In the moments after, she would have known it was me.”
Following the murdering his mother, he filled a car with 12 homemade Molotov bombs, three firearms, ammo, camping gear, and directions to Mr. Trudeau’s Rideau Cottage home after spending hours drinking beer and using marijuana.
Before turning back and driving to a Vancouver police station, he traveled about 200 kilometers east to the hamlet of Hope. There, he told an officer, “I killed my mother.”
Grantham, a former child actor, made an appearance in one episode of Riverdale on the CW network in 2019, as well as in the fantasy drama Supernatural and the 2010 movie Diary of a Wimpy Kid.