PORTLAND, Ore. — An Oregon white supremacist who took part in the 2011 execution of four people, including an Everett couple, was sentenced on Tuesday to a life behind bars.
Holly Grigsby joined her boyfriend David “Joey” Pedersen’s quest to start a revolution, targeting Jewish leaders and “Zionists.” The couple’s three-state crime spree left four people dead, including Pedersen’s father, David “Red” Pedersen, and his wife, DeeDee Pedersen.
Joey Pedersen and Grigsby both earned life sentences without the chance of release for the deadly rampage.
They were indicted in 2012 on federal racketeering charges in Oregon. Grigsby pleaded guilty in March. Pedersen also pleaded guilty and is scheduled to be sentenced next month.
Grigsby, 27, has been a white supremacist since her early teens, federal prosecutors wrote in court papers. She met Joey Pedersen about three months before their killing spree. The pair bonded over their beliefs. Joey Pedersen founded a white supremacist prison gang.
Grigsby apologized Tuesday to friends and relatives of the victims. She said she realized any explanation for her behavior would come across as an excuse.
Prosecutors alleged that Grigsby was responsible for tying up DeeDee Pedersen and slashing her throat inside the Everett grandmother’s home. The pair had already killed Joey Pedersen’s father.
Grigsby and her attorney deny that she was the one who slit DeeDee Pedersen’s throat.
However, Joey Pedersen told people that he couldn’t bring himself to harm a woman and asked Grigsby to kill DeeDee Pedersen, according to court papers.
Joey Pedersen already is serving life sentences for killing his father and stepmother after pleading guilty in Snohomish County in 2012. He claimed he killed his father for molesting his sister.
He later pleaded guilty to the federal charges, including the murders of Cody Myers and Reginald Clark.
The crime spree began in Everett, where Pedersen’s estranged father and his wife lived. Pedersen told friends he was going to rob his father of guns and money and kill him for being a child molester.
The police investigation here uncovered evidence that Red Pedersen sexually assaulted his children decades ago. DeeDee Pedersen was not married to him at the time.
Joey Pedersen’s sister has denounced her brother’s violent actions on her behalf, saying his motivation was irrational and she believed he deserved to spend the rest of his life behind bars.
Once the Oregon couple left Washington they headed south toward Sacramento, Calif., with plans for mass killings.
Along the way, Pedersen shot Cody Myers, 19, multiple times, killing the Oregon college student for his car. He shot Clark in the head in California, planning to take the disabled man’s pickup truck.
Pedersen later described Clark’s murder as killing two birds with one stone because he got rid of a witness and rid the world of a “degenerate” black man, prosecutors wrote.
A California Highway Patrol officer arrested the pair after spotting them in Myers’ stolen car.
Once behind bars, the couple made numerous statements to media, explaining that they had set out to “preserve” and “purify” the white race.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463, hefley@heraldnet.com.
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