White supremacist said pair wanted to "kill more Jews"

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White supremacist said pair wanted to "kill more Jews"
ReutersBy Teresa Carson | Reuters – 19 hrs ago
White supremacist said pair wanted to "kill more Jews" - Yahoo! News

PORTLAND, Ore (Reuters) - A white supremacist couple suspected of committing four murders across the Pacific Northwest on their way to "kill more Jews" in Sacramento were ordered held in California on Tuesday until extradited to Washington state.

The couple, David Joseph Pedersen, 31, and Holly Grigsby, 24, were arrested last Wednesday in Northern California, capping what authorities said was a two-week, three-state crime spree that began in the Puget Sound city of Everett, Washington.

Both face charges of aggravated first-degree murder in Washington state over the stabbing death of Pedersen's 69-year-old stepmother and the shooting death of his father, aged 56. Both were slain last month.

Appearing together in Yuba County Court in Marysville, California, on Tuesday, the pair waived their right to challenge extradition to Washington to face the charges.

"We anticipate they will probably be out of our jail by the end of the week," said Patrick McGrath, Yuba County's district attorney.

An affidavit filed with the charges said Grigsby had confessed to killing the stepmother, Leslie Pedersen, by slashing her throat with two knives after she was bound with duct tape.

The affidavit said Grigsby also told Oregon State Police in a five-hour videotaped statement that her companion shot his father, David Jones Pedersen, in the back of the head while the elder Pedersen was driving the couple to a bus station, and that Grigsby took control of the Jeep from the passenger seat after he was shot.

SUPREMACIST LEANINGS

The affidavit said the pair then drove to their home state of Oregon, where they are suspected of abandoning the body of Pedersen's father in his Jeep and later shooting dead 19-year-old Cody Myers, whose body was found last week in a forest.

Pedersen and Grigsby were driving Myers' car when they were taken into custody, police said. They have since been named as suspects in a fourth slaying, that of Reginald Clark, 53, who was found shot dead in a car in Eureka, California.

Grigsby told police detectives in her statement that Myers was killed in the mistaken belief, based on his last name, that he was Jewish, according to the affidavit. It also quoted her as commenting when arrested that she and Pedersen "were on their way to Sacramento to 'kill more Jews.'" Clark was black.

The accused couple's white supremacist leanings were evident in a White Power tattoo on Pedersen's neck and through Facebook postings by Grigsby.

In a jailhouse interview published by the Marysville Appeal-Democrat newspaper, David "Joey" Pedersen said he decided to kill his father because he believed the elder Pedersen had molested Joey's sister and a cousin.

"It looks like I'm an irrational psychopath, and I'm not," the paper quoted him as saying.

Police have said the couple killed the stepmother because they believed she had known of the sexual abuse but failed to stop it, though police said they had no proof of molestation.

Prosecutor Mark Roe of Snohomish County, Washington, said aggravated first-degree murder was the only crime in the state that can carry the death penalty. He said the pair could also face execution if the slayings in Oregon and California were prosecuted as hate crimes.

(Additional reporting by Laura Myers in Seattle; Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Greg McCune)

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Bloody clothes, stolen credit cards found
APBy GENE JOHNSON - Associated Press | AP – Tue, Oct 11, 2011
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SEATTLE (AP) — Authorities have recovered bloody clothing, a knife and stolen credit cards that they believe were in the possession of a couple accused of going on a deadly crime spree across the Pacific Northwest, according to an affidavit.

Prosecutors also say that one of the suspects, Holly Grigsby, claimed that she and her boyfriend, David "Joey" Pedersen, were heading to Sacramento, Calif., during their spree to "kill more Jews" when they were arrested last week in California.

The pair, who have expressed white supremacist beliefs, are suspected of killing his father, David "Red" Pedersen, 56, and his wife Leslie, 69, about Sept. 26 in Everett, Wash., and, later, two other people, including a 19-year-old man they believed was Jewish.

The couple fled the state and, on Sept. 29, police found a backpack inside a garbage can in Corvallis, Ore., a deputy prosecutor wrote in a probable cause statement filed Monday in Washington state.

Inside were the bloody clothing, a knife and four credit cards belonging to the elder Pedersen and his wife, authorities said.

The couple faces charges of aggravated first-degree murder. They could face the death penalty if convicted. Their appointed attorney, Donald Wahlberg, said he did not know anything about the case beyond what had been reported.

In interviews with a reporter and police, the couple said they killed Pedersen's father because he molested two young relatives and killed his wife because she knew and still supported him.

Grigsby, 24, confessed during a five-hour, videotaped interview with Oregon state police, Snohomish County, Wash., deputy prosecutor Craig Matheson wrote in a probable cause statement.

Grigsby said the couple planned to travel from Oregon to visit Red Pedersen and his wife — and then kill him by shooting him in the back of the head as he was driving them to a bus station.

She said she was in the passenger seat and took the steering wheel after her boyfriend fired a shot to the back of his head. They then drove to the Pedersens' home in Everett.

Grigsby said she herself slit Leslie Pedersen's throat, and they headed south in Red's Jeep with his body inside.

They ditched the car off a steep embankment, and killed Cody Myers, who was on his way to a jazz festival on the Oregon coast, because his name sounded Jewish, according to Matheson's affidavit. Myers was a devout Christian.

When she was arrested, Grigsby said "the couple was on their way to Sacramento to 'kill more Jews,'" Matheson wrote.

Grigsby and Pedersen were arrested outside Yuba City, Calif., when a police officer spotted them in Myers' car. Authorities had been tracking them by use of stolen credit cards and had warned police in several states to be on the lookout for them.

Pedersen, 31, initially refused to talk with police, but on Saturday, he reconsidered.

He admitted murdering a man in Eureka, Calif., on Oct. 3 or 4, the probable cause statement said. The crime matched an open investigation into the death of Reginald Alan Clark, 53, who was found dead with a bullet wound to the head.

Police have not suggested a motive, but Clark is black.

On Sunday, Joey Pedersen, who has spent nearly half his life in prison, summoned a reporter for a California newspaper, the Appeal-Democrat, to the jailhouse for an interview and took "full responsibility" for "everything that's been reported."

He said he killed his father because he had molested his daughter — Joey's older sister — and an adopted cousin when they were young, and that they had killed his dad's wife because she knew about the molestation but still supported him. He told the paper that his mother, with whom he remained close, informed him of the abuse about four years ago while he was prison. He soon resolved to kill his father, he said.

"I'm not glad he's dead. I don't get joy from it. But I do get satisfaction," he said. "He didn't deserve to be walking around anymore.

Pedersen also said he expected to be charged with killing the "dead Negro" because "the bullet from my gun is in his head."

Joey Pedersen has an extensive criminal history, having spent from age 16 to 31 behind bars, except for a one-year stretch. His convictions include assaulting a police officer and threatening a federal judge. He was released from prison in May.

Grigsby also spent time in prison beginning in 2006 for a variety of charges, including identity theft and unauthorized use of a vehicle. After completing probation, she served two years for identity theft. Even in prison, she got into trouble, including for assault.

Both share an interest in white supremacist ideology. Pedersen prominently displays a white supremacy tattoo on his neck. Grigsby's white supremacist leanings were made clear to fellow inmates at Oregon's women's prison.

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Jonathan J. Cooper contributed from Portland, Ore. Johnson can be reached at https://twitter.com/GeneAPseattle