Riverdale actor sentenced to life following murder of his mother
Ryan Grantham will be ineligible for parole for 14 years after pleading guilty to second-degree murder
Aux News Murder
Canadian actor Ryan Grantham, who appeared in Riverdale and Diary Of A Wimpy Kid, has been sentenced to life in prison, according to CBC. The sentence was automatic after Grantham pled guilty to the second-degree murder of his mother. The variable in the sentencing concerned the length of time Grantham would go without parole, which was determined to be 14 years.
Grantham—who played the killer of Luke Perry’s character, Fred Andrews, on the CW series—was said to have shot his mother in the back of the head in March of 2020, per CBC. He confessed to the murder on a video he took of his mother’s body, which he later arranged in a funerary fashion (lighting candles and hanging a rosary nearby) before leaving the house. He then packed a car with ammunition and set off with the intention of assassinating Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. He was also said to have considered perpetrating a mass shooting, possibly at Simon Fraser University where he was enrolled. Instead, he eventually turned himself in to the police.
In arguing for a shorter period of parole ineligibility, Grantham’s defense cited serious mental health issues, saying the murder was done in his “disordered thinking, to prevent his mother from seeing what he thought he was about to do,” according to a previous CBC report. Grantham has been receiving psychiatric care since his arrest and made an apology in court earlier this year.
“I cannot explain or justify my actions. I have no excuse. 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. “Someday, if I’m ever released from prison, I hope to continue on this path of bettering myself.”
82 Comments
I wouldn’t Grantham parole either.
More stars for this, please.
I really tried but Kinja only allows me to hand out one.
I ran out of them just as I was getting started
What a Rya(n) sense of humor!
Damn you for seemingly effortless perfection. And on a Friday to boot.
Now this is classic AV Club commentariat stuff. Another star for you.
And you ain’t Ryan..
This is truly the only appropriate response to this article.
The Granthams of Downton Abbey hang their heads in shame!
I was all shook up by the baby face attached to this awful story and then read this and I can’t not laugh. Thank you.
You have no idea how much I hated starring this.NO. IDEA.
He didn’t once mention the victims. He’s not sorry for what he did and they will let him out in 14 years.
The whole situation reads like a Riverdale script that was rejected as being too far fetched…and that’s saying a LOT.
lol right??? Archie is going to have to go back to prison to battle him.
No, it fucking doesn’t.
The most recent season ended with everyone giving up their superpowers to Cheryl so she could channel them with her magic to stop a comet headed for Riverdale that was pulled off course by an immortal sorcerer from another dimension, and the comets destructions somehow caused everything to be reset to the 1950s. So, uh, this is definitely not too far-fetched for the show.
Are you saying that the latest season was a pseudo FF VII sequel?
I mean, at this point why not?
GAAAAAAHHH!
While I realize it’s a pull quote, it’s really something to apologize for “wasting your own life” after you murdered someone (let alone your fucking mom).
Due to his mental state I don’t think you can ask for much better.
i think a mass shooting would have been much worse. its sad he couldnt get help- hes in CANADA.
Yeah…among a thousand other red flags, that’s still a really big one.
The linked article mentions he’d been struggling with both suicidal and homicidal thoughts. His comment about ruining his own life fits with the sort of self-loathing thoughts a suicidal person can have.The other article also mentions he described his mother as a caring and compassionate person who didn’t deserve what he did to her, i.e. this article left out some of the more appropriate things he said in court.
So his defense is saying that he murdered his mom to prevent her from seeing him commit an assassination or mass shooting that he didn’t even go through with…?Holy fuck that is dark.
Pedantic comment, but it should be “the CBC” and not just “CBC”.
Interesting point. With acronyms for organizations it seems our trend is to start with “the” then eventually drop its use. Like we don’t say “The CBS” or “The NBC” (don’t know if we ever did). I work for an organization where about half of the people say “the” before the acronym and the other folks don’t.Pondering this a few more seconds, I have a dim memory of people referring to NBC with “the” when spelling out the acronym: “The National Broadcasting Company”. Maybe use of “the” depends on whether the entity and people hold the full phrase in their heads (like I imagine CBC and BBC branding still do with “Canada” or “British” in their names), while acronyms with odder spelled-out names (CBS = “Columbia Broadcasting System”) tend to drop it rather than try to explain why a major network is named “Columbia”. Holy smokes, that was a long sentence. My apologies to others who read this far. Please know that I ended up boring myself as well.
Yes, this is 100% just from me knowing how we talk about it here and is specific to this particular broadcaster. I would say “according to the CBC” but “according to CBC News”. I wonder if, like you suggest, something like NBC or CBS migrates from being an initialism to an acronym (even though technically still an initialism?). It has always interested me how we say the UN but just UNICEF, for example, but those are clearer examples of initialism vs acronym. Fun to think about!
KFC wasnt always…
You also don’t hear sportscasters say “the OSU” when referring to The Ohio State University, it’s official name.
I assume that’s just because they know it will annoy Ohio State fans, who are generally insufferable.
That is a case of formality. Its official name is irrelevant. I doubt anyone calls it “The Ohio State University” unless they are actually just saying “the Ohio State university.” A university is less “official” than a government agency or other public/private organization. Similarly, the local college in Madison, WI is now called “Madison College,” instead of “Madison Area Technical College,” or “MATC.” I know zero people, amongst current and former students/staff and people who never attended, that call it anything other than MATC. With things like colleges the plain acronyms, with no “the,” function more like a pet name.
I think with the CBC and the BBC, it probably comes from them both being the *literal* national broadcaster. Both the CBC and the BBC are funded by the government and at the time of their founding, they were THE Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and THE British Broadcasting Corporation, whereas NBC was never the US’s *literal* national broadcaster.
i just vaped some sour diesel, and posted the same thing.
As you pointed out, people say “the BBC.” I assume the CBC is addressed similarly.
Actually the correct styling is “His Honorable Lordship, Sir BBC”
Just call me “Beeb.” My dad was Sir BBC.
because even though we act like Europe and USA had a terrible mixed up baby, we still act like we’re british. *sigh*
I noticed Letterman used to say “the CBS” and such.
I think calling them “the CBC” and “the BBC” may be due to being public broadcasters? Governmental organizations tend to keep the “the” -> “the FBI” “the IRS” etc.
I was about to say the same thing! It also goes for things like the AMA, the ADA.
its not the nbc cbs or fox. “CDC reports…” would be valid, no?
I would actually say the CDC reports.
Get a life
I guess my hope would be that the commentariat not dismiss the mental health piece as some sort of excuse or PR thing. It’s obviously relevant. There but for fortune yadda yadda. It’s a tragedy from every angle.
It’s clear he is mentally Ill. His apology to the court rubbed me the wrong way because it seemed to be more about how he ruined his life and less about the life he took
Yeah also got a red flag from “Someday, if I’m ever released from prison, I hope to continue on this path of bettering myself.”
It felt like saying what you think they want to hear but doesn’t make sense when you think about it. If you want to better yourself you’ll be doing it throughout not just when (if) freed.
id imagine he thinks hes already going to be the model inmate, so that counts?
If that’s the nit your going to pick, doesn’t it address your point that he used the word “continue?”
TV-watching me reads that as “Once released I will complete my transformation into a superior being determined to kill you all.”
Wasn’t directed at your comment. If he didn’t concentrate as much on that as he should have I actually think the blame belongs with the lawyer.
It says a lot about a person when even in their apology, they make themselves out to be the injured party. Mental illness or no.
To be fair to the psycho, the parents of child actors have a high tendency to be pieces of shit.
seems to me he killed his mom so she wouldnt be emotionally wrecked over the high score he was gonna shoot for.
Yes, well, that is some…logic.
“See, so when you view it from THAT angle, your honor, he was actually being QUITE a considerate son!”“You are correct, counselor. Given this interpretation of the evidence, we will strike thirty years off this life sentence. So he will only serve infinity -30 years in prison.”
Damn, this is just… really sad. I guess we can be thankful he had a moment of lucidity long enough to not commit any acts of mass violence.
Yeah, this terrible story could have been far worse. I doubt he gets anywhere near Trudeau, but his university was certainly an at-risk target.This story leaves out that he apparently had a dozen molotov cocktails with him as well.
Is that an old photo or is he a literal child?
This magic button on my phone labeled ‘Google’ tells me that that’s an older photo, but Ryan is 24..
Its an old photo. He is 24.
LOL ayyyy
Old photo.
“Someday, if I’m ever released from prison, I hope to continue on this path of bettering myself.”What’s the alternative? More of this?
You think he couldn’t get worse? Have you been outside lately?
Can we please use a better picture or at least say at the top this guy is 24 years old now.
It is a little surprising to me that someone who would not only murder their mother, but then arrange candles and a setting, and then film it all and talk about it on film, would then stop later and say “Actually I am a bad person, I think I will turn myself in now before this gets worse”. I am glad he did of course.
Unless maybe doing all of that gave him time to think about what he was about to do and cool down?
It sounds like he considered it a mercy killing rather than murder. I don’t know though — it sounds like mental illness is definitely in play here and that can cause real unpredictability.
I recognized him from the header pic as a kid from an old Supernatural episode.
It hurts me to think about how badly I’ve wasted my life. Not much of an apology, is it. Even here he’s making it all about him. Wasting his life. Not about… oh, say, executing his mother. Yeah, I’m sure there are all sorts of psychiatric issues at play here – but clearly the help isn’t doing much if his approach to remorse is to talk about what it’s costing him.
He confessed to the murder on a video he took of his mother’s body, which he later arranged in a funerary fashion (lighting candles and hanging a rosary nearby) before leaving the house. He then packed a car with ammunition and set off with the intention of assassinating Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.What kind of fucking Michael Myers shit is this??
I could find no reporting that even ventured to mention any conversation of a possible motive.
“He feared his mother would soon discover he had dropped out of university and detailed his desire to commit mass murder and suicide.Ultimately, Ryan decided to kill his mother, who was battling cancer at the time, to spare her from seeing the carnage he was about to leave behind.”From this blog post: https://fatimhemraj.medium.com/the-riverdale-actor-who-killed-his-own-mom-while-she-battled-cancer-9a7594865d13
You miss this part?In arguing for a shorter period of parole ineligibility, Grantham’s defense cited serious mental health issues, saying the murder was done in his “disordered thinking, to prevent his mother from seeing what he thought he was about to do,” according to a previous CBC report.
It’s almost like wanting to kill people is a mental illness or something
Dude, you killed your mother…that’s batshit crazy!
Not the the kid from the award winning Marley and Me sequel! Oh noes! Those seriously it sounds like this kid had a serious psychiatric break and I’m not sure no parole is fair.
Ok but is this the kid that played The Wimpy Kid in Diary of a Whimpy Kid?
It is not at all common in Canada to own a gun.
This murder was committed with a .22, and given that he and his mother lived adjacent to bear country (a townhome in Squamish), it was probably at least nominally for hunting.
Hm. This is the first time in recent memory that one of these stories involves someone somewhat noticeable from the aforementioned show and not an extra whose presence is entirely unmemorable.