Wednesday, Apr. 13, 2005

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Girls get life sentences for killing grandparents

Holly Harvey and Sandra Ketchum pled guilty in separate courtrooms Thursday to killing Harvey’s grandparents in a brutal stabbing at their north Fayette home August 2 of last year.

Harvey, 16, got the harshest punishment: back-to-back life sentences, while Ketchum only got one life sentence. District Attorney Scott Ballard said Ketchum got the lighter sentence because she cooperated with police, because she expressed remorse and because she had agreed to testify against Holly Harvey if necessary.

Police have previously said Harvey and Ketchum were in a romantic relationship.

Thursday morning, Harvey said she first stabbed her grandmother in the back, and she later stabbed her grandfather “pretty bad” after chasing him upstairs from her basement bedroom at Ketchum’s behest.

Harvey and Ketchum will ultimately be eligible for parole at some point, and neither could face the death penalty because Georgia law forbids juveniles from being sentenced to death. Those decisions are left up to the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles, officials noted.

Superior Court Judge Paschal A. English noted that this case was the most brutal he had come across in his 30-plus years as a district attorney and judge in the Griffin Judicial Circuit.