Murder Spree Suspect Says He Targeted 'Non-White'

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- The Oregonian reports it received a letter Thursday from David Joseph Pedersen who is accused with his girlfriend of killing four people in a crime spree through Washington, Oregon and California.

The newspaper reports Pedersen explained a racist motive for killing a Eureka man, Reginald Alan Clark, 53, who was black.

They intended to take his car and, Pedersen wrote, they decided to "kill two birds with one stone so to speak and target a non-white."

Pedersen and Holly Grigsby also are accused of killing a 19-year-old in Oregon and taking his car. They also are charged with murder in the deaths of Pedersen's father and stepmother in Everett, Wash. They were arrested by a CHP officer in Yuba County.

Pedersen and Grigsby pleaded not guilty to those deaths Wednesday in Everett, where they remain in jail.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)