Former “Riverdale” actor Ryan Grantham, 24, pleaded guilty in March to second-degree murder in the 2020 killing of his mother, evidently in the interest of sparing her from having to watch his plot to assassinate Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau unfold, according to court revelations.

Grantham admitted to shooting his 64-year-old mother, Barbara Waite in the back of the head as she sat playing piano in their British Columbia home on March 31, 2020. Prosecutors said during his sentencing hearing on Monday that the sociopath covered her with a sheet and placed rosaries and candles around her body, then he left the home equipped with three guns, ammunition, 12 Molotov cocktails, camping supplies and material with directions to Rideau Cottage – the Ottawa residence of Justin Trudeau.

But he turned back after only a few hours into what would have been a 50-hour drive, deciding instead to commit a mass shooting at Vancouver’s Lions Gate Bridge or at Simon Fraser University, where he once attended but withdrew.

Segments from his private journal were read aloud at his sentencing hearing Wednesday that described his intention to assassinate Trudeau. His sentence is still pending, but prosecutors have asked that he at least face 17 to 18 years in prison before he is eligible for parole. Alternatively, British Columbia statutes allow for a life sentence for second-degree murder.

“Mr. Grantham was seeking to save his mother from something he was going to do. That is something different than altruism,” prosecutor Michaela Donnelly said during the sentencing hearing, describing the murder as 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.”

The actor read from a prepared statement during the hearing.

“I cannot explain or justify my actions. I have no excuse,” said Grantham. “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 fibre [sic] of my being, I am sorry,” he said.

Grantham’s defense attorney Chris Johnson attempted to paint his crime altruistically.

“At the time of the offence [sic], this killing was not done out of hatred or animosity, it was done in Mr. Grantham’s disordered thinking, to prevent his mother from seeing what he thought he was about to do,” said Johnson.

Video filmed on a Go-Pro camera by Grantham was presented during the hearing in which he performed a walk-through of the murder and subsequently filmed his confession after he had killed his mother.

Daughter Lisa Grantham found Waite’s body.

“How can I trust anybody when my only sibling chose to execute my mom when her back was turned,” she said during the hearing.

Acting professionally since the age of nine, Grantham’s credits include “Riverdale,” “Supernatural” and “iZombie,” and the films “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” and “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.”

He was written as the hit-and-run killer of Luke Perry’s character in “Riverdale” after Perry died suddenly from a stroke.

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Frank Webster

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Frank (Chip) Webster is a musician and composer, former teacher of percussion and U.S. Army Infantry veteran. He holds a degree in English from Arizona State University.

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