D.A.s oppose parole for double murderer
Orange and Riverside district attorneys oppose the parole of a man who as a teenager raped and murdered his stepmother and another woman he considered a maternal figure, the county offices said.
Gregory Coates, 50, who is imprisoned in Jamestown, Calif., is scheduled for parole review Wednesday.
In 1975, he bludgeoned and suffocated his stepmother, Betty Coates of San Juan Capistrano, and set her body on fire. He also shot to death Jean Stephens of Mira Loma, whose family had befriended him, the Orange County district attorney’s office said.
Coates at one point confessed to the crimes, but has recently said that his stepmother consented to having sex with him and that her death was accidental, the district attorney’s office said.
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