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Holly Grigsby exchanges glances with David "Joey" Pedersen during a court appearance in California after their arrest in 2011.
(The Associated Press/File)
A white supremacist accused in the killing of four people in a conspiracy case wants a quick trial. Federal officials prosecuting him and a co-defendant do, too. But both sides will have to wait a bit longer.
Judge Ancer Haggerty decided during a hearing in U.S. District Court in Portland on Wednesday to postpone the trial of David “Joey” Pedersen and Holly Ann Grigsby two more months from May 5 to July 7 next year.
The attorneys for Grigsby also requested another delay: They asked the judge in a motion to postpone until next year hearings that will determine whether Attorney General Eric Holder pursues the death penalty. Kathleen Correll, attorney for Grigsby, said the defense needs more time to review evidence.
Jane Shoemaker, assistant U.S. attorney, objected to the motion, saying prosecutors need to know sooner rather than later whether this will be a capital case. Pedersen protested to a delay as well, calling it “a stall for time” on the part of Grigsby's attorneys.
“I’m ready to face the music,” he told the court.
Grigsby, sandwiched between her attorneys, didn’t comment. The two, facing charges as partners in crime, did not look at each other.
The indictment accuses Pedersen, 32, and Grigsby, 26, of killing of Pedersen’s
of Everett, Wash., 19-year-old Cody Myers of Lafayette somewhere on the Oregon Coast and Reginald Alan Clark, a man in Eureka, Calif. All four were killed in the fall of 2011, almost exactly two years ago.
Pedersen told The Oregonian in a jailhouse interview that he's guilty. Grigsby has also said that she killed DeeDee Pedersen.
Haggerty will decide on the motion asking for a delay in the hearings by Monday.
-- Lynne Terry