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Riverdale’s Lili Reinhart Reacts to Former Costar Ryan Grantham Sentencing: ‘We Do Not Claim Him’
Riverdale star Lili Reinhart reacted to the prison sentencing of her former costar Ryan Grantham, who portrayed Jeffrey Augustine in season 4 of the hit CW series.
“We do not claim him, thank you,” Reinhart, 26, wrote via Twitter in response to a tweet from Variety, reporting the news of his life sentence.
Grantham, 24, was sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday, September 21, in British Columbia, Canada’s Supreme Court, per the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, after the Supernatural alum confessed to killing his mother, Barbara Waite, on March 31, 2020. Waite was found dead in their shared townhouse earlier that year. Grantham was subsequently arrested and charged with first-degree murder and later plead guilty to second-degree murder.
The former iZombie star shot his mother with a .22 rifle, and he recorded a video of himself confessing to the murder shortly afterward, per the CBC. One day later, Grantham allegedly stashed multiple forms of ammunition in a car with the intention of killing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. He reportedly changed his mind and contemplated engaging in a mass shooting at either Simon Fraser University, where he was reportedly enrolled as a student, or on the Lions Gate Bridge in Canada. However, Grantham turned himself into the Vancouver Police Department instead.
“I cannot explain or justify my actions. I have no excuse,” the Diary of a Wimpy Kid actor reportedly said in a June court hearing. “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.”
The verdict for Grantham found that he will not be eligible for the possibility of parole for 14 years, and he must follow a lifetime firearm ban.
The CW alum’s attorney, Chris Johnson, spoke about his client during his June sentencing hearing and claimed he did not act out of malice.
“At the time of the offense, this killing was not done out of hatred or animosity,” Johnson said at the time. “It was done in Mr. Grantham’s disordered thinking, to prevent his mother from seeing what he thought he was about to do.”
According to the CBC, Justice Kathleen Ker considered Grantham’s mental health struggles upon learning he had sought psychiatric assistance while he was in prison. She reportedly labeled the case as “heartbreaking” and “tragic” but mentioned Grantham’s choice to turn himself in was a “saving grace.” The outlet also reported the defendant appeared to regret his actions.
On Thursday, September 22, Johnson publicly noted his client had been working on turning his “life around” after he was arrested.
“He’s received a lot of psychological assistance and he has struggled with what he’s done and facing that,” Johnson said a statement obtained by E! News. “But he hopes to be able to dedicate the rest of his life to making amends.”
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