Riverdale recurring star Ryan Grantham has been sentenced to life in prison, following his admission of murdering his mother.
The 24 year-old actor appeared in the fourth and fifth seasons of Riverdale as Jeffrey Augustine, a character created for the television adaptation of the Archie Comics classic. Grantham was sentenced in British Columbia six months after he pleaded guilty to shooting his mother in the back of the head.
The actor had recorded his own confession directly after the murder, with a phone video showing him admit he had “shot her in the back of the head”, and in the moments after “she would have known it to be me”. Grantham is believed to have shot his mother while she was playing piano, before the next day loading a car filled with molotov cocktails, guns, ammo, and directions to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s house.
TMZ reports the actor will be unable to appeal for parole during his first 14 years in prison. Grantham had previously appeared in the first live-action Diary of a Wimpy Kid movie in 2010, before several smaller appearances in shows such as Falling Skies, iZombie, Supernatural, and miniseries Unspeakable.
Grantham appeared in just two episodes of Riverdale, with his second appearance comprised entirely on archival footage from the previous season. Whether or not the two episodes will remain available to stream on Netflix is currently unknown.
Riverdale’s seventh and final season is earmarked to air in 2023.