Canadian actor Ryan Grantham, 24, who plead guilty to second-degree murder in March for the murder of his mother, allegedly also had plans to kill Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, People reports.
The ex-actor, best known for his roles in 2010's Diary of a Wimpy Kid and The CW's Riverdale, is already facing a mandatory life sentence in the 2020 slaying of his mother Barbara Anne Waite.
According to the British Columbia Prosecution Service, this week's sentencing proceedings began June 13 and were held to determine how long Grantham will have to serve before being eligible to apply for parole. The Prosecution Service confirmed to People that the minimum period of parole ineligibility for second-degree murder is 10 years with a maximum of 25 years, per the Criminal Code.
CBC reports that the then 22-year-old rehearsed his mother's killing, shooting her in the head as she played the piano, and proceeded to take videos of the murder's aftermath, in which Grantham confesses to the crime and shows Waite's dead body.
Waite, who was battling cancer, was found by Grantham's sister Lisa Grantham the day after the brutal killing. "She was vulnerable and Ryan gave her no chance to defend herself," Lisa shared in her victim impact statement to the court, referring to her mother as her best friend. "It pains me to know he was a danger to her life."
Grantham Loaded Car with Weapons, Directions to Prime Minister's Family Home
According to CBC, Grantham allegedly loaded his car with three guns, ammunition, 12 Molotov cocktails, camping supplies, and a map with directions to Rideau Cottage—Prime Minister Trudeau's family home—following the grisly March 31, 2020 murder.
Grantham mentioned his plan to kill Trudeau in a statement to the police; he also alluded to the plan in excerpts from his private journal read in court. Grantham never made it to Trudeau's residence but instead turned himself in at Vancouver police headquarters.
The actor had been suffering from "an intense period of clinical depression" in the months leading up to the crime, according to psychiatric reports referenced by Crown prosecutor Michaela Donnelly. The reports showed that Grantham was also "experiencing urges to commit violence and kill himself" and claimed he made the decision to kill his mother to "spare her from seeing the violence he intended to commit."
Per the British Columbia Prosecution Service, Wednesday was the last of the three days scheduled for the hearing.