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Holly Ann Grigsby sits in the back of a California Highway Patrol vehicle following a traffic stop on Marysville Road and Gettys Court in Yuba City, Calif. in October 2011.

(The Associated Press)

Turning to face the grieving family members of those she helped kill, Holly Ann Grigsby said she wasn't going to blame abuse, drugs or a tough childhood to explain the murderous path she cut with David "Joey" Pedersen across three states in fall 2011.

Instead, "the desperation in my heart" as she relapsed back into drug addiction fueled her actions that have hurt not only the victims and their families, but her own husband and son and even the white-supremacist movement whose beliefs she continues to embrace, she said.

"My actions have further damaged the reputation of a movement misunderstood," she said. "I deeply regret this. Although I had nothing but the best of intentions, the bridge to Valhalla is not paved with good intentions" but with one's actions and heart, she said.

Grigsby words came just before Senior U.S. District Judge Ancer Haggerty sentenced the 27-year-old Portland woman to spend the rest of her life in prison. Grigsby had pleaded guilty in March to one count of racketeering in connection with the murders and related offenses.

A sentencing memorandum filed by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jane Shoemaker and Hannah Horsley laid out the government's timeline of the killings of Pedersen's father, David "Red" Pedersen; his stepmother, Leslie "Dee Dee" Pedersen; and two strangers, Cody Myers, 19, of Lafayette and Reginald Alan Clark, 53, of Eureka, Calif.

Grigsby and Pedersen had embarked on a campaign to wage a white-supremacist "revolution" in September 2011 planning to target Jewish organizations. They traveled to Washington state, where they spent several days with Pedersen's father and stepmother before Joey Pedersen fatally shot his father while Red Pedersen drove Grigsby and his son around.

They took his car, weapons and credit cards. They returned to the house and used two knives to slash the throat of Dee Dee Pedersen before fleeing to Oregon. There, after getting assistance from friends Corey Wyatt and Kimberly Scott Wyatt, they carjacked and killed Myers, who had agreed to give Grigsby a ride as he was returning from the Newport Jazz Festival.

They continued to California, where they carjacked Clark, who similarly had agreed to give the couple a ride. The couple, who was headed to Sacramento to target Jewish organizations there, was arrested on Oct. 5, 2011, when a California Highway Patrol officer recognized the suspects and the vehicle description that police agencies had publicized.

The sentencing hearing Tuesday morning allowed the Pedersen family to unleash their pain on Grigsby, the first of the two admitted killers to be sentenced. Family members for Myers and Clark did not make a statement.

"How dare you go into my mother's home where she welcomed you as family," said Lori Nemitz, Dee Dee's daughter, recalling the days before the slayings when Grigsby had stayed with and met members of the Pedersen family.

"I hugged you, for God's sake," Nemitz said, who called the torturous slaying of her mother with the dull knives "beyond heinous, beyond cruel."

"I cannot imagine a person that would do that to an innocent woman who welcomes you as family," she said.

Catherine Hix, a spokeswoman for another daughter, told Grigsby that she was "a wicked, heartless viper. You slithered into town with only one thing in mind – murder."

And Holly Perez, the sister of Joey Pedersen, sobbed as she recounted the misery that all four victims must have felt in their final minutes.

"Separately, you and Joey are nothing but two cowards with a skewed ideology," she said. And the impact extends to Grigsby's own family, Perez noted, saying the murderer will never be able to hold her own young son in her arms ever again.

Grigsby nodded her head.

Haggerty handed down the sentence with little commentary. Because federal prison has no parole program, Grigsby will remain behind bars until she dies.

Corey Wyatt was sentenced last week for providing Pedersen, a felon, with the weapon he used to kill three of the four victims. Wyatt's wife, Kimberly Scott Wyatt, is to be sentenced at the end of the month.

Pedersen, who pleaded guilty in April to two counts of carjacking resulting in death, is to be sentenced on Aug. 4.

-- Helen Jung