<p>Fifteen-year-old Holly Harvey told a judge on Thursday that her "eyes were closed the whole time" she stabbed her grandmother to death.</p><p>Harvey confessed to killing her grandparents in return for a sentence of two consecutive life sentences.</p><p>She said her friend came up with the idea to kill the elderly couple. At some point in her basement bedroom on the morning of Aug. 2, Harvey's conversation with 16-year-old Sandy Ketchum turned toward stabbing Carl Collier and his wife, Sarah.</p><p>The girls first practiced stabbing Harvey's bed with a kitchen knife, then tried to lure the elderly couple into Harvey's basement bedroom by smoking marijuana.</p><p>Eventually, Harvey's grandparents came to her room to look for a suitcase. With her grandfather rummaging through the closet and her grandmother standing an arm's length away, the girl said she pulled the knife from the waistband of her jeans and started stabbing.</p><p>"My eyes were closed the whole time," she said.</p><p>For half an hour on Thursday, Harvey choked back sobs and spoke softly as she recounted the killings to Fayette County Superior Court Judge Pascal English.</p><p>As part of a plea deal, she had to detail the events of the day when she and Ketchum stabbed her 74- and 73-year-old grandparents in the couple's north Fayette County home before fleeing in her grandparent's truck.</p><p>The girls were arrested 17 hours later at a beach house on Tybee Island, about four hours away. Police say they found a sort of to-do list scrawled in ink on Harvey's arm: "kill, keys, money, jewelry."</p><p>Ketchum was sentenced separately and did not have to explain her actions to Fayette County Superior Court Judge Johnnie Caldwell. At the end of her hearing, which lasted less than 10 minutes, Caldwell sentenced her to three life sentences for murder and armed robbery, to be served concurrently _ meaning she could be eligible for parole in 10 years.</p><p>Harvey will not be eligible for parole for at least 20 years. Both judges told the girls they would have been candidates for the death penalty, but for their ages.</p><p>Ketchum was immediately cooperative with authorities, showed remorse and was prepared to testify against Harvey at trial _ factors which justified a lighter sentence, Prosecutor Scott Ballard said during her hearing.</p><p>Outside the courthouse, Tim Ketchum, her father, said she did the right thing.</p><p>"I can't explain it. I'm not that type of person," he said. "I didn't raise her to be that type of person. I want to say to the community I'm very sorry this happened."</p><p>Judge English demanded an explanation from Harvey, who stood motionless with her attorney's arm around her during the hearing.</p><p>Harvey told the judge the idea to kill her grandparents started with Ketchum, who suggested stealing the couple's truck "to get something to calm us down," Harvey said.</p><p>"I said 'We'll have to kill them to do that,' but I didn't mean nothing by that," she said.</p><p>When asked why she decided to kill her grandparents anyway, Harvey told the judge in a hushed voice, "For Sandy," and added, "So that we could be together."</p><p>After stabbing her grandmother once, Harvey said her grandfather charged at her before she stabbed him in the chest. She pursued him as he ran upstairs and tried to call for help, pulling the phone out of the wall, Harvey said.</p><p>"He grabbed the knife and I thought he was going to stab me," Harvey said, adding she took the knife from him and started attacking him.</p><p>Ketchum, she said, stayed in the basement and continued to stab the woman.</p><p>The teens had faced two counts of felony murder, two counts of malice murder and one count of armed robbery. The maximum sentence the girls could have received was life in prison without parole.</p><p>Judge English asked Harvey after sentencing her if 20 years in prison "was a good deal" for killing her grandparents. She answered no.</p><p>When he asked what she thought should happen to her, Harvey replied, "I think I should be dead."</p><p>The judge muttered, "We both agree on that."</p>
