White supremacist gets life in prison after U.S. West Coast killing spree

[August 05, 2014]  By Teresa Carson
 
 PORTLAND Ore. (Reuters) - A white supremacist convicted of killing two people during a bloody three-state road trip on the U.S. West Coast was sentenced on Monday to two life sentences by a federal judge in Portland, Oregon, the Justice Department said.

David Joseph "Joey" Pedersen, 34, was sentenced to the concurrent jail terms without the possibility of parole by U.S. District Judge Ancer Haggerty for the 2011 deaths, the Justice Department said in a statement.

Pedersen is already serving life in prison in Washington state after he pleaded guilty in 2012 to first-degree murder for the shooting death of his father and the stabbing death of his stepmother in Everett, north of Seattle.

Those were the first in a series of killings during a 10-day rampage by Pedersen and his girlfriend, Holly Ann Grigsby, that included robberies and carjackings before the pair were arrested in 2011 in northern California, the Justice Department said.

"Justice has been served. Both of these misguided killers will spend the rest of their lives in prison to account for these heinous murders," said U.S. Attorney Amanda Marshall.
 

Monday's sentencing relates to the deaths of Cody Myers of Lafayette, Oregon, and Reginald Clark of Eureka, California, two people the duo separately carjacked and murdered, the department said.

Grigsby, also of Portland, was sentenced in Washington state in July to life in prison without the possibility of parole for racketeering activity in a plea deal that also encapsulates all the crimes alleged in the case, it said.

The couple's white supremacist leanings were also evidenced by tattoos on Pedersen's neck and Grigsby's racist Facebook postings.

The siege ended with Grigsby allegedly telling police she and Pedersen were on their way to "kill more Jews" in Sacramento, California.

Other accomplices who provided weapons and helped hide a car they stole from Pedersen's father were sentenced earlier. An Oregon man who was convicted for attempted carjacking related to the spree is scheduled to be sentenced in September.

(Reporting by Teresa Carson in Portland, Oregon; Writing by Eric M. Johnson; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

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