Ryan Grantham's lawyer has revealed that the actor fears that he will be abused by other prisoners after his murder conviction.
The 24-year-old - who is known for playing Jeffery Augustine in CW's Riverdale - pleaded guilty to killing his 64-year-old mother, Barbara Waite, after fatally shooting her in the head while she played piano in their family home in 2020.
Grantham was charged with second-degree murder, after having initially been charged with first-degree murder. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the first 14 years of his sentence.
In an interview with Fox News, Grantham's lawyer, Chris Johnson, said that the actor will most likely be placed in a maximum-security prison with other murderers.
Johnson has expressed that he is concerned that the former child actor - also known for his role in the movie Diary of a Wimpy Kid - will be "preyed upon by other prisoners and perhaps abused by them" because he looks "looks like a 17-year-old".
"My biggest concern is that he will be preyed upon by other prisoners and perhaps abused by them," Johnson said. "We send people to prison to be both punished and rehabilitated."
"And so I’m hopeful that the latter can take place. We don’t send people to prison so they can be punished by other prisoners," he continued. "When people plead guilty to a crime, it doesn’t mean they’re saying, 'Sure, I’ll be raped and abused by other prisoners.' That’s not part of the deal."
The Vancouver-based criminal defense lawyer said his client could be at higher risk in a maximum-safety prison due to the fact that he is 5ft 2" tall and weighs about 100 pounds.
Johnson also said that Justice Kathleen Ker, the judge who presided over Grantham's case, requested that officials put the actor inside a medium-security prison rather than a maximum-security prison where most convicted murderers are sent.
The lawyer explained that in the Canadian court system, the court has no authority over which institution an inmate serves time. He also said that the correction authorities have jurisdiction over that decision.
In addition to this, Johnson also revealed that he plans to send a request letter to the director of prisons asking that the actor-turned-killer be sent to a lower security prison.
He told the outlet that Grantham was being held at the North Fraser Regional Pre-trial Centre in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, pending his trial.
According to him, the actor is "apprehensive" about entering a maximum-security prison, saying: "I think he's just apprehensive about that because of his age and appearance."
Grantham will now be transferred to the Pacific Institution - a maximum, medium, and minimum federal penitentiary in Abbotsford, British Columbia - until the correctional officials classify him.
The day after murdering his mother, the actor also confessed that he had planned to assassinate Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. He dropped that plan after a few hours and instead, considered committing a mass shooting at a university.
However, he instead turned himself in for his mother’s murder.